Beautiful Eyes
by TygerSong
Summary: Victoria "Tori" Queen never imagined that she would be anything other than a "normal" teenager living out her life in a rural Montana town. That is, until a family trip to the Big Apple goes terribly wrong, Tori ends up living in the sewers with mutant turtles, and learning how to use her new "superpowers." Rated T because I'm paranoid
1. London Bridge is Falling Down

Chapter One:

All four of the turtles were in the dojo when the explosion went off. It shook the confines of their home and made dust fall from the ceiling. The tree that grew up from the center of the room trembled and groaned in protest. Within seconds, the shaking stopped and they all exchanged worried looks.

"What the shell was that!?" Mikey asked. Completely forgetting that he was supposed to be fighting Donnie.

"I don't know," Leo admitted. "Whatever it was, it couldn't have been good."

"Earthquake?" Raph suggested halfheartedly. Donnie shook his head.

"No, earthquakes in New York are very rare. There aren't even any plate boundaries within hundreds of miles of here."

They were interrupted by the tell-tail ringtone Donnie had set for April. He froze and smiled sheepishly.

"Heh, sorry. I'll just go and uh, yeah. Hold on." He took out his t-phone eagerly. "Hey! April, how are you-" he stopped and listened intently. The remaining turtles crowded in closer in an attempt to hear, only to be pushed away again by Donnie. He suddenly clutched the phone tight and his jaw dropped open in horror.

"O-okay. W-w-we'll be there as soon as we can." He hung up, and slowly turned to his brothers.

"Guys something awful has happened."

Mikey gasped. "Pizza was banned from New York City?!" Donnie shook his head.

"No, it's even worse." He looked at them with utmost seriousness and despair. "The Kraang blew up the Brooklyn Bridge. There were no survivors."

"I'm so excited!" Cass squealed for the 15th time that morning. Tori giggled at her cousin's excitement.

"I know! I haven't been to New York City since I was 7 years old!" she exclaimed, remembering her frequent visits to the city when she was younger, before she had moved out of the state. "I can't wait to see how much it's changed. Not that I can remember much from before other than all the awesome toy stores and ridiculously long lines of Black Friday." They both ogled at all the people and buildings at least ten times taller than any that they would find in Montana.

"I've never even been to New York before and now that I'm here I just can't believe it!" Cass was so close to her window, her nose squished up against the glass. "I can't wait to see the Empire State Building, and the Museum of Natural History, oh! And don't forget the ferry that we're taking to the Statue of Liberty! And the-" Tori laughed happily.

"Yeah I know! We still have a long drive ahead of us though so don't, you know, hyperventilate before we get there or something." Tori looked out her own window to the taxi next to theirs. "Hey look, there's my mom and dad."

Cass leaned forward to look out of her cousin's window and waved so spastically she knocked Tori's "I ? NYC" cap off. She laughed and bent down under the seat, her arm bent at an odd angle to reach it. Suddenly, there was a thunderous boom, and the taxi driver slammed on his brakes. Her body jerked forward before the seatbelt could react, her arm snapping and she hit her head hard on the seat in front of her.

She groaned as pain shot up and down her now broken arm, and her head throbbed.

"What was-" she started to growl, still hunched down, but she was cut off by the synchronized screams of both Cass and the driver, and the blistering heat of open flames burning and peeling away her skin. As suddenly as the flames came, they were gone and was replaced with something far less pleasant.

Unidentifiable green goo oozed in through the shattered windows and coated her shriveled skin. Each drop burned more than the inferno had, and every particle buried itself into her flesh. The blinding pain made her scream in agony, and soon she welcomed unconsciousness with open arms.

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

Due to possible architectural damage, the police, detectives, and firefighters were not aloud to investigate the area of the explosion, and instead spent their time making sure curious civilians didn't cross the yellow tape. This, however, proved to be very useful to the four mutant turtles as Donnie carefully studied the bomb with Mikey standing guard and Raph searching for possible survivors with Leo. So far it was just one horribly burnt corpse after another. Raph felt closer to throwing up after every vehicle he checked, and was suddenly very glad that Mikey didn't have to see this. He'd have nightmares for years.

"Why would they do this?" Leo muttered unhappily. "Why just set off a bomb. These people haven't done anything wrong. They were just normal people going about their normal lives. They don't even know about the Kraang's existence. So why bomb them for no reason?"

Raph shook his head. "I dunno Leo. Maybe they think it'll make their lives easier to have a few hundred less humans to deal with." He glanced over at Donnie who was poking the bomb suspiciously with someone's windshield wiper.

He sighed and peeked into another faded yellow taxi. This one had an almost completely incinerated driver, and two passengers. The first one was burnt beyond recognition. The second one was hunched over as if she had hidden from the inferno from behind the seat in front of her. Unlike her companion, she was only slightly burnt. The back of her shirt was almost non-existent and her skin was covered in third degree burns- and she was breathing!

"Donnie, I got a live one over here!" he shouted. All three of his brothers looked over at him with mixed expressions of disbelief, hope, and concern. As they rushed to join him, he carefully extracted her from her seatbelt, and pulled her from the car. Her arm was bent at an unusual angle, and her hair and face were covered in soot, but she was alive. Donnie quickly kneeled beside Raph and immediately went into doctor mode.

"Third degree burns, broken humerus, possible concussion, and-" He stopped speaking and just stared at in mixed fascination and disbelief. For a moment, no-one could tell what had stopped him from running a diagnosis, but then they saw it for themselves. The incredibly sensitive raw burnt skin on her back was healing itself right before their eyes; stitching itself together and producing new skin tissue at an impossible rate. Suddenly Donnie was struck with realization.

"I don't think this was just a slaughter fest," he explained. "I think this was an experiment of the Kraang's. The bomb must have been infused with mutagen."

Raph looked down at the young girl -who he just realized couldn't be any older than himself- skeptically. "If she was exposed to mutagen, then why doesn't she look like a monster?"

Donnie considered this for a moment. "Usually when a human is exposed to mutagen, their DNA becomes infused with the DNA of the last organic thing they touched. Since she was blasted with incredible heat from a bomb first though, any foreign DNA that was on her would have been scorched off. That way, there was no other DNA to fuse with. Her body instinctively knew that she needed to heal herself in order to live, so it used the mutagen to created regenerative healing within her."

Leo soaked this in, carefully considering all his options. "If the kraang wanted something like this to happen, does that mean they'll try to take her back with them to test the results?" he asked.

Donnie shrugged. "I would assume so. It's unlikely they would go through so much trouble to do this and not check the results. So far as I can tell, there's nothing we can do but take her back to the layer with us."

He expected cries of protest, but none came. They all knew that they couldn't just leave her there for the kraang to find, and the hospitals wouldn't know what to do with a patient with mutant powers. Mikey, who had been uncharacteristically quiet to this point, was tasked with carefully carrying the girl back to the layer with Donnie while Leo and Raph stayed behind to look for anymore survivors, even if they knew they wouldn't find any.

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ

By the time Mikey and Donnie got back to the lair with the girl, she was almost completely healed. Donnie couldn't help but sneak glances at her every once in awhile, intrigued by the new, almost impossible, healing advancement occurring right in front of him. Never had he ever seen anything that was that ... exciting. If he could duplicate the white blood cells and put them in a neutral blood type serum, it could becomes the world's best healing agent. Of course, there was no way he was going to subject the mysterious girl to being a science experiment for the rest of her life. Maybe just for emergencies?

They had given Master Splinter a quick run through on why they had brought a complete stranger into their home and he had welcomed the idea of helping the poor girl (once the situation had been explained) with open arms.

When Mikey set her down on the table, they both stared at her for a moment. She was now perfectly fine aside from being completely filthy. She had long, wispy black hair, and a petite face sporting a small nose, full lips, and long eyelashes. She was small, and very thin, but she didn't look weak. She definitely had more muscle than the average teenage girl, but nothing compared to the lean muscular build of Donnie and his brothers. She had strong calf muscles which suggested she was a runner, and blunted skin around her knuckles that said she did more than a little boxing with a bag.

Donnie ran her through another check up, but she seemed to be in perfect condition- other than the obvious fact that she still hadn't woken up.

"Well now what?" Mikey blurted. Donnie shrugged helplessly.

"I don't know. There's not much I can do. I could give her an IV drip to keep her from getting dehydrated, but aside from that, all we can do is wait for her to wake up." So wait they did. Eventually Raph and Leo came back looking exhausted and weathered, but anxious to see Donnie's new patient.

"How's she doing Donnie?" Leo asked. Donnie looked up from where he had been about to fall asleep.

"I don't know." He admitted. "Ideally she would be awake by morning, but I can't really tell. This goes way beyond my medical capabilities."

Raph shrugged and started gravitating towards the door thinking of his wonderfully warm bed. "She'll come around. But until then, maybe we should get some sleep. Staring at her won't make her wake up any faster." And then he was gone. Leo exchanged a look with Donnie.

"He's right. How about you go to bed Don. I'll sleep on the couch and if she wakes up, I'll hear her." Donnie nodded and the turtles went their separate ways.


	2. The Evil Shoe Brand

Chapter Two:

Everything hurt. Every muscle (including ones she didn't know she had) was sore and every nerve was on fire. Then suddenly, they weren't. Tori quickly tried to get her bearings without opening her eyes. She was obviously in a bed. The sheets were too scratchy to be her own, but not scratchy enough to be the hotel room. Was she in a hospital? Is that why she had been in so much pain? It was completely silent other than a quiet drip, drip, drip...There was something itchy connected to her right arm- an I.V. she assumed.

Wearily accepting that she wasn't in any danger (hey, she had just been in a terrorist bridge attack- she was allowed to be paranoid), Tori opened her eyes and sat up in her bed.

Definitely not a hospital. Or her room. Or the hotel.

She looked around the strange room suspiciously. It was an odd garage-like room. All the lights were off, but she could see the small glowing bleeps of light from machines, and now that she was concentrating, she could hear the quiet almost inaudible whirring of computers.

There was a large sliding metal door across the room that was open just wide enough to let her see another dark room with dull flickering lights suggesting that a T.V. was on. She tried to move to get out of bed, but the awful burning sensation returned when she tried to move. She immediately fell back onto the bed and tried not to scream out in agony. She dug her fingers into the mattress, convulsing in pain.

"Help..." She croaked coarsely. "Help!"

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

There are some things in life that you cannot unsee. Hundreds of crispy corpses was one of those things. As exhausting as searching in every car and bus had been, every time Leo closed his eyes, he would see one of the horribly mangled bodies and he would jump awake with a start. There had once been a time when his little brothers would come to his room, tears in their eyes, upset over their newest nightmare... then he would let them crawl into bed with him and they would both be asleep in minutes. He almost wished he could go to Donnie's room or Mikey's or even Raph's and do the same, but he had never done something like that and he wasn't about to now. Not only was he the oldest, he was also now the leader. He couldn't go crawling into bed with one of them crying about nightmares.

So instead he did the next best thing. He watched Space Heroes. He had already been through 6 episodes and it was nearing 3 in the morning. He was considering the risks of heating up some of Mikey's pizza when he heard sounds of struggle coming from Donnie's lab. He quickly paused the tape and listened carefully.

"Help..." Immediately he lept to his feet.

"Donnie!" He called down the hall. "It's the girl! She's awake!"

He rushed into the lab and saw the girl struggling with an invisible force, nails digging into the makeshift hospital cot, eyes wide in panic. He ran to her side, not touching her in case it was a seizure or something. He was soon joined by the rest of the turtles and Donnie went immediately into doctor mode, despite the fact that he had just woken up and hadn't had any coffee yet.

"What's going on?" Raph asked.

"I don't know," Donnie admitted, quickly checking all her vitals. "I think her body's going into shock."

"Well what caused it?" Leo asked.

"Probably the stress of having been burnt to a crisp, or her body trying to except the mutagen into her bloodstream. She could just be panicking."

"Well which one is it?"

"I don't know!"

"Maybe someone should kiss her, like Snow White and the-"

"Shut up Mikey!"

And suddenly everything stopped. The girl sat there completely still as if she were holding her breath before she slowly let it out.

"It's gone," she breathed. "It's gone." Donnie stared at her before slumping his shoulders and sighing in relief.

"Thank goodness. I'm going to get some coffee." To which he took his leave.

The three remaining turtles sat there awkwardly exchanging glances and waiting for the girl to realize she was surrounded by mutant turtles and scream bloody murder.

"So," she said opening her eyes again and sitting up slowly. She slowly looked at each of them in turn, curiously eyeing them. "Giant talking turtles? Well I must say, this is a first."

Leo raised an eye ridge. "You're not afraid of us?"

She considered him for a minute. "No. If you were a terrorist, I'd definitely be scared. Trying to kill me instead of help me? Well, I'd be peeved. Drinking coffee? Not the scariest thing in the world."

Mikey grinned, ecstatic at this new information. "Sweet! This is awesome dudes, not even April reacted this well!"

The girl offered him a small smile. "I try not to judge books by their covers."

Raph scoffed disbelievingly. "Doubt it." His two brothers and the girl looked at him in surprise. Now that no-one was in immediate danger, he had fallen into his old 'tough guy' act, leaning back against the wall, arms crossed and scowling."How do we know she isn't with the Foot Clan?" he elaborated.

The girl frowned in confusion. "Foot Clan? What's that?" She asked innocently.

Raph glared at her distrustfully. "You're in New York, how could you _not_ know who they are?"

A look of reproachfulness crossed her features. "I just got here from Montana this morning." She watched him thoughtfully. "Is Foot Clan a shoe brand?" Mikey snickered appreciative of her light tone, and Raph rolled his eyes.

"Guess again Princess," he said. In an instant, her face hardened in a scowl.

"Don't call me princess," she growled. Raph smirked at her and opened his mouth to say something, but Donnie came in, cup of coffee in hand.

"Alright, before we can explain anything to you, I need to ask you a few really important questions, then we can answer yours later, okay?" Tori nodded compliantly, gesturing for him to continue.

"How old are you?

"15." Donnie scribbled the information down on a clipboard.

"What was your blood type?"

Tori around in confusion. "Was?" Donnie gave her a look. "Right, later. Sorry. I'm AB positive."

"Ooh! My turn!" Mikey said, pushing Donnie to the ground in his excitement. "What's your favorite color?"

"Sunset Orange," Tori answered, seemingly unfazed.

"Favorite food?"

"Smoked Salmon."

"Favorite Movie?"

"Avengers."

"Sweet! Favorite T.V. show?"

"iZombie."

"Never heard of it. When's your birthday?"

"August 30th."

Mikey gasped. "Dude, that was, like, 4 days ago. You're almost exactly the same age as we are!"

Tori tilted her head. "All four of you?"

Mikey jumped forward again, happy to be the one to elaborate. "Yeah. We all hatched from the same batch. Leo's the oldest, Raph is second oldest, Donnie came next, and then there was me." Mikey smiled happily. "Back to my questions. Favorite dessert?"

"Mmmmm," she hummed dreamily with a far off look. "Homemade milk chocolate fudge."

Mikey stared at her blankly. "What's fudge?"

She looked shocked. "You've never had fudge before?" Mikey shook his head, his blank I-don't-understand-a-single-thing-your-saying look seeming to distress Tori and Donnie took it upon himself to explain.

"Before last week, we'd never been to the surface before, so there are a lot human foods we still haven't tried yet."

"But we have tried pizza!" Mikey added excitedly.

Leo laughed. "And now it's the only thing you ever eat!" Tori nodded and smiled.

"I guess that just means I'll have to introduce you to the best chocolate dessert in the world," she said.

Raph snorted. "It can't be that good." To everyone's surprise, Tori didn't bite back like she had earlier. Instead she smiled pleasantly.

"Oh, it is," she assured him.

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

"Kraang, how many humans survived the explosion that is known as the explosion that was done by Kraang?"

"There is only one human who has survived the explosion known as the explosion that was done by Kraang. The human has been taken by the ones known as 'the turtles'."

"Then Kraang must retrieve the human who has been taken by the ones known as 'The Turtles'. Kraang must study the human who has survived the explosion that is known as the explosion done by Kraang."

"Agreed. Kraang will soon begin the operation that is known as the operation of returning the human who has survived the explosion that is known as the explosion that was done by Kraang."

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ

It was hours before Donnie had finished asking all of his questions, with constant interruptions from Mikey.

"Alright, now I have a question," Raph said. Tori braced herself for the thus far rudest turtle and waited for his question. "What are you doing in New York if you're not from here?"

Tori rolled her eyes at his obvious trust issues. "The same reason millions of other strangers come and leave New York City. Tourism."

He wrinkled his nose. "Tourism?"

Tori nodded. "Yep. Well, mostly I'm here to see some Broadway shows. I act too, and need to take notes from the pro's."

"Woah," Mikey gasped excitedly. "You're an actress? Like in movies?"

Tori laughed. "No, I'm just a stage actress. I was in a commercial once though." Leo chose that moment to join the conversation, having once seen a documentary about a Broadway Musical when all the other channels on T.V. hadn't been working.

"Really? What plays have you been in?" he asked. Tori paused and thought back the last four years.

"Well," she said slowly. "I started with Oliver, then Children of Eden, Milan Jr., Hairspray, Peter Pan, Annie, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Honk Jr., The Wizard of Oz, and just last month I was in Mary Poppins."

Leo was impressed. He recognized most of them. Mikey had gone through a huge Disney faze when he was younger, resulting in getting several of the songs stuck in everyone's head for weeks at a time.

"Any noteworthy roles?" he asked politely.

Tori blushed and smiled shyly, glancing in Raph's direction. "I played Ariel in The Little Mermaid," she confessed. Her smile vanished altogether when she heard Raph start to laugh uproariously.

"So you are a princess!" he spluttered. Tori groaned.

"New subject please."

"What's the matter princess? Where's Prince Charming?" He goaded. Even Donnie looked over in surprise. Raph was pretty rude on the worst of occasions, but he had never been like this to April. He was going a little too far. Tori glared at him, her brown eyes hardening.

"Okay, first, It's Prince Eric," she corrected. "Second, I don't know what's wrong with you, but you need to get that stick out of your butt before you say something you regret. And third, stop calling me princess!" Silence followed and Raph raised an eyebrow, begrudgingly admiring her spunk.

"Oh snap!" Mikey laughed, earning she smack to the back of the head.

Tori smirked then saw something pointy glinting in the corner of her eye. Donnie was holding a needle, and innocent look on his face and Tori immediately jumped to her feet.

"No," she said eyes widening slightly. "No no no no NO!"

"I need to check your blood for abnormalities," Donnie said trying to appease her. "We'll even have Mikey distract you from your fear of needles." Tori shook her head again.

"I'm not afraid of needles per say," Raph snorted in disbelief and she continued. "But the last time I had blood drawn they got the needle stuck in my arm and took 5 minutes to get it out. When I was born with pneumonia, the doctors had to stick me with an I.V. to keep me alive and they accidentally collapsed the veins in both my arms and both my legs before sticking the I.V. in my head. Every time I get a shot, I get sick with that exact illnesses every. Single. Time. So, no. I am not afraid of needles; I just know that needles and I shouldn't mix."

Donnie winced in sympathy. "Okay, point proven, but I really need to get a sample of your blood to figure out what is going on in your system."

Tori glared at him warningly, milk chocolate eyes darkening to coal black in anger. "Yeah but why? You guys haven't told me anything. How am I just fine after a terrorist attack? Why am I here and not at a hospital? Where are the rest of the survivors behaving held? What makes me so special? Where exactly am I? How do you guys even exist?" Leo put a "comforting" hand on her shoulder.

"If Donnie needs to look at your blood, it's for a good reason," he said. "If you just do this last thing for us, we promise to answer all of your questions." Tori took his hand off her shoulder and directed her terrifying glare on him.

"No," she said firmly. "I want answers before you stick me. Where. Is. My. Family?" All four turtles shared an uneasy look. If they had been separated from each other and didn't know if the others were safe, they would react in the same way, but they didn't know how to break it to her easily. How do you tell someone that their family had died in the same explosion that should have killed them but instead gave them super healing?

"And we will, of course, do as you ask," came a wizened voice from the doorway. Everyone looked over and there stood Master Splinter. He entered the lab and Tori felt the need to immediately trust him which only made her more apprehensive. "But, if we are to tell you the whole story, you will need to calm down first." Tori frowned in slight distrust but gave into her gut feeling that he really was trying to help. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath in through her nose, and let it out through her mouth.

"Okay," she said. "I'm good." She opened her eyes again and they were back to normal. Raph had to wonder if her eyes had ever changed color like that before her mutation. It was fascinating. Then he scowled to himself and shook off the thought.

"Good," Splinter said. "Now you may want to sit down; it is a very long tale to tell." Tori obediently sat back down on the bed and Donnie put the needle back in a sterile tray. "First, what is your name, if I may ask."

"Victoria Queen," she said. "I go by Tori." She could tell Raph was going to make another joke about her being a real live princess, but Splinter stopped him with a look. Tori was impressed; Raph must have a lot of respect for this man if he actually listened to him.

"And I am Hamato Yoshi, but you may call me Splinter." Tori nodded, not knowing what else to do.

"Now," he said. "Our story is a strange one, and sometimes hard to understand, so it requires an open mind." She nodded again and was soon engrossed in the story of Hamato Yoshi and the baby pet-shop turtles.


	3. The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Chapter Three:

Tori sat in contemplative silence for a moment, and they allowed her the time to let the new information sink in.

"So, you can see why it is of utmost importance that you don't tell anyone about our existence. It would put not only my son's and I in danger, but also put you in harm's way with the Kraang and Oroku Saki." Splinter explained.

Tori nodded. "Yes, I understand." She thought for another moment. "Not that I don't find all of this fascinating, but it still doesn't answer all of my questions." The wise rat nodded and stroked his chin.

"Yes, but I do believe it would be better for my sons to tell the rest of the story, as I do not know all of it myself."

All four of the turtles exchanged a look. For once Mikey didn't want to do the talking, and they all agreed Raph wouldn't be sensitive enough, so that left Leo and Donnie. After a silent argument, Donnie stepped forward, looking very forlorn.

"Well ah, due to recent events, you have gained enhance healing," he started.

"Yeah, dudett your like a superhero!" Mikey said excitedly. Raph slapped the back of his head and muttered, "Shut up Mikey." Tori, for lack of a better response, raised an eyebrow but let Donnie continue.

"So, obviously, the ones who made you like this will probably want you back to study you."

Tori nodded. "Yeah, okay, but how did I get like this?"

"See.. the attack on the bridge... wasn't a terrorist attack." He took a deep breath, tried to look at Tori, but couldn't manage it. She was just a teenager, just like him. Just like Raph, and Leo, and Mikey, and April... "The bomb was set off by the Kraang. There were 621 casualties, and... you were the only survivor."

She went deathly still, eyes clouding over and staring, but not seeing, and her skin turned ashen grey. "My- my- my b-b-brothers and and and m-my... All... gone?"

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ

She was quiet for the rest of the explanation. For the rest of the day even. She didn't say anything. She didn't respond to anything. She didn't even flinched when Donnie took a blood sample (admittedly with a little trouble, but Tori didn't even seem to notice). Splinter had left some time ago and the four boys were now getting ready to go out on patrol. Leo leaned into the lab and saw her wrapped in a blanket, sitting stock still on the hospital cot.

"We're going topside now. We'll be back in a few hours," he said. She didn't so much as blink. He sighed and returned to his brothers. Tori had heard him, but she didn't care about anything at the moment. She heard the turtles muttered conversation before running off down the subway tunnel. The moment they were out of hearing range she curled in on herself, let out a heart-wrenching wail and grieved the loss of her entire family. She did not shed tears though. Never would she cry again. Ever.

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

Tori tossed and turned on the hospital cot. The sheets were pretty soft, and warm enough to protect her from the draft, but she couldn't get comfortable enough to stay asleep. She knew it was a problem that went along the lines of being in a new and unfamiliar place, without anyone she knew anywhere near her. Or maybe she just needed to stop thinking about her family and the explosion. It wouldn't be easy to put on a brave face in the morning, but she knew she couldn't hole up in Donnie's lab ignoring the existence of the turtles for the rest of her life. She still had to worry about how she was going to get all her stuff, and where she was going to live- and how she was going to find good homes for her pets who were waiting for her back in Montana.

She had heard the turtles come back from their patrol hours ago, and had pretended to be asleep when Donnie checked in on her before going to his own room to sleep. She didn't want him fussing over her. That would only result in Raph teasing her again and calling her princess. Or Mikey trying to cheer her up, or Leo pitying her. She didn't like to be pitied.

Finally giving up on sleep, she decided it was time to explore her new temporary home. She slid carefully out of bed steadied herself, and took her first step towards the door. Her left leg was asleep and it felt like it was bending the wrong way, but when she looked down at it, it looked fine. She decided to just walk it off, and continued to stumble to the door as quietly as she could.

The first thing she saw when stepping through the sliding door, was a family room of sorts with a battered couch, a patched up beanbag chair, a TV, a pinball machine, an arcade game of sorts and a strange wooden structure hanging from the ceiling that looked like stair leading to the world above. Past that was what looked like a slightly overused kitchen, with a simple table and the usual essentials such as a refrigerator, a stove, sink, microwave, etc. Looking down the hall she saw what looked like several separate rooms that held the soft (or not so soft) snoring of four mutant turtles.

She felt an odd pull in their direction. She wanted to be that close to her family again; she didn't want to be alone anymore.

Tears threatened to gather in the corner of her eyes, but she fought them back again. The positive side of her mind was desperate to come up with an optimist's response.

 _'I'm not completely alone_ ,' she thought. _'The turtles and Splinter said they would help me_.'

She stood in the doorway for a little longer, before disappearing back into the lab and returning with a blanket and a pillow. She crept down the hall as quietly as she could, thankful for the fact that at least they didn't have creaky floorboards due to having concrete floors. She passed a peaceful looking room with a tree growing through the floor mats, and stopped in the middle of the hall dividing up the six bedrooms. It seemed ridiculous, but when she knew she was surrounded by such powerful yet gentle giants, she felt safe. Safe enough to sleep she hoped.

She dropped the pillow on the floor between two of the doors, wrapped the blanket around herself, and curled up against the wall. She briefly worried about what the guys would think when they saw her in the morning, but her exhausted mind couldn't find the ability to care as she quickly drifted off to sleep.

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ

Under many circumstances, Raph had proved to be a very light sleeper excluding the rare occasions when his body demanded more rest than usual after a long day. So it was no surprise when the slight shuffling noise made by Tori woke him with a start. At first he thought it was just Mikey tossing in his bed again, but the shuffling had been outside his door, not on the other side of the wall.

Knowing curiosity would keep him from falling asleep again, he quietly grabbed his sai and crept silently to the door. At first he couldn't see anything, but a shadow in the corner of his eye shuddered and he looked down at the small figure curled up in the spare flannel blanket, her dark hair spiked across her pillow. Tori shivered again and Raph actually felt bad for her. The sewers were cold at night, and one blanket wouldn't do much to protect her.

He flinched at the door creaked and Tori jumped up looking at him in embarrassment, her eyes darting around the dark hall looking for an excuse. He considered teasing her, but he was too tired, and Tori looked too innocent.

"Alright," he relented. "Come on in." He expected a sarcastic remark and for her to stubbornly refuse, but to his surprise, she entered without a fuss- or her pillow. He snatched it from the floor and closed the door.

She stood there in the middle of his room, taking in everything from his drum set, to his hammock, and to the desk stacked with magazines, comics, and a sleeping turtle (a normal one).

"You can have the bed or the hammock, I'm too tired to care which one you choose." He fully expected her to take the bed, but instead she trudged wordlessly to the hammock that was hanging up against the back wall, hopped in, and wrapped the plaid blanket around herself.

Raph stared at her in surprise. It was as if she were a whole different person from the firecracker he had met that morning. He shrugged it off, and handed her one of his thicker blankets and her pillow.

"Alright then," he said awkwardly. "Goodnight."

She still didn't say anything. He shrugged again, turned off the light, and was about to crawl into his bed when he heard her speak just above a whisper.

"Thank you." Raph paused a moment to let the two simple words sink in. Thank you for what? For helping her when the bridge was bombed? For bringing her to the layer instead of child services? For letting her sleep in his hammock instead of on the cold concrete floor? He wanted to ask her, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead he got back into his bed and fell asleep to the steady breathing of the stranger who was presently- finally- at peace enough to sleep.


	4. April Showers Bring May Flowers

Chapter Four:

When Raph woke up the next morning, Tori was already gone, not so much as leaving a trace that she had ever been there in the first place. It surprised Raph to realize it, but he was kind of sad to see her gone.

He left his room and could already hear Mikey humming and making... something that might be considered breakfast.

Upon entering the kitchen, he saw his youngest brother dancing around the kitchen adding random things like sardines, pepperoni, and brown sugar, to a pot of oatmeal. Tori was sitting on the counter watching him work; a comical look of mixed fascination and repulsion on her face. Donnie was making coffee and glanced at her occasionally as if she were a ticking time bomb. None of them could really tell what to make of her. She was sweet and sensitive one minute, sassy and snappish another, then quiet and unresponsive. He could think of only one way to check and see this stranger's current position on life.

"Morning Princess," he said casually entering the kitchen. A glance out of the corner of his eye told him that she was glaring at him.

"Call me a princess again and you might find yourself missing a limb," she threatened, the gold in her eyes burning dangerously. Mikey laughed and continued stirring "breakfast". Donnie relaxed and stopped sneaking looks at her and went about his own business.

"I think you getting mad at him is only going to make things worse," Mikey suggested wisely. "He does the same thing to Leo all the time calling him 'Captain Ryan' or 'Fearless Leader'."

"Better you than me," Leo admitted as he walked swiftly into the room and took the orange juice from Raph, who was about to drink it from the carton. "How are you feeling this morning?"

She shrugged innocently. "I'm fine. I really would like to go to my hotel to get my stuff and check out though." Raph exchanged a look with Leo.

"Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Leo asked. "Everyone either thinks you're dead, or wants to turn you into a guinea pig."

"Or a-"

"Don't finish that sentence Mikey," Raph warned, not quite awake enough to deal with whatever weirdness came out of his mouth. Luckily he chose that moment to try a spoonful of his oatmeal.

"Anyway," Leo continued, "Do you even have a key card? Everything in the taxi you were in was incinerated except you."

Tori pulled a Holiday Inn hotel key card out of her tennis shoe. "I didn't have any pockets, so I guess it's a good thing I don't like open-toe'd shoes." Another exchanged glance. Raph shrugged nonchalantly and made a bowl of cereal.

"Well okay then," Leo said. "You can come with us when we go topside tonight." Tori raised an eyebrow and smirked good naturedly.

"Are you guys supposed to be my bodyguards now?"

"Well, yeah!" Mikey exclaimed, waving his wooden spoon around. "The kraang-dudes probably want you for their evil experiments and we can't protect you from them until it's dark out."

Tori shrugged. "Alright then. Whatever floats your boat."

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

All day, the turtles took turns showing Tori around and providing her with entertainment. Master Splinter even let her sit in and watch their training. It was easy to point out the differences between their fighting techniques. Leo was perfect in that he did everything exactly how Splinter did, but he never tried to branch out and make something up himself. He acted on impulse, his head completely in the game, but every action was well practiced and strategize.

Raph was a little less concerned on getting the "katas" right, and more focused on brute strength. Granted, he was just as good as Leo, but it looked less like he was dancing with deadly weapons, and more like he was trying to wrestle all his opponents into submission. It seemed to work well for him though.

Donnie was obviously the brightest of the brothers. Tori could see the wheels in his head always turning, his eyes always analyzing. He would mentally map out every move carefully before executing. Actually, he seemed to think a little too much, but he often made up for it with his habit of getting everything down perfectly before moving on.

Mikie was the most... fluorescence of the four. He was all over the place, smiling the whole time and weaving around the fight, fluid as water. He was as capable a fighter as his three older brothers, but he wasn't focused enough to make the exact right moves at the right moments. He could easily avoid most moves against him, but the moment he became distracted was the moment he had lost the battle.

Tori herself had never been taught to fight anyone in any form of martial arts. She had seen boxing on tv, took her anger out on punching bags, and had gone to many of her younger brother's wrestling matches, but if she ever found herself in a situation where she needed to defend herself, she had always relied on pure instinct. She used whatever advantage she had, and her adrenaline and clear head always got her through ok. This didn't stop her from taking short mental notes on some of the simpler fighting techniques that she saw that day though.

Around 3:30 in the afternoon, Tori met another human friend of theirs. She was getting a final check up from Donnie, who said she was good to go, when she came.

"I still can't believe how quickly you got over those burns!" Donnie said. "And your arm was broken in two places! That should have taken weeks, months even, to heal! It's so fascinating!" Tori shrugged and hopped down from the examination table.

"I guess that mutagen stuff works wonders," she said. She became distracted by the squeaking of tennis shoes in the subway tunnel and perked up.

"Who else is here?" She asked Donnie. He gave her a weird look.

"Uh, no-one. Just Leo, Mikey, Raph, Sensei and-"

"APRIL!" Mikey shouted from out in the main room. Donnie's eyes widened and he shot out of his lab like a bat out of hell, her "fascinating" condition forgotten. Tori curiously followed him and saw everyone- excluding Raph of course- greeting a red haired girl wearing a black under armour under a bright yellow t-shirt and Jean shorts over a pair of black leggings.

"Hey guys," she said. "Any luck finding my dad and the Kraang?"

Leo winced. "No... more like we've had bad luck trying to figure out what their motive is."

The girl's- April Mikey had called her- eyes dimmed and her smile faded. "Thats right," she said. "The bridge. I don't know how I could have forgotten. It's all anyone would talk about at school today. Did you find anything?"

"Well," Donnie said shrugging. "In a manner of speaking."

"What did you find?" she asked.

Raph chose that moment to join the conversation. "It's more of a 'who' than a 'what'," he said nonchalantly. It was then that April finally noticed Tori who had been watching the exchange from the doorway to Donnie's lab.

"Oh," she started in surprise. "I didn't know there was anyone else here. Is she a friend of yours?" Tori came out to join them in the living room of sorts and smiled at April.

"Hi, I'm Tori Queen." She said with a small wave. "I didn't know the guys had another human friend."

"April O'Neil. Likewise; they've never mentioned you before. I thought I was the only one who knew they were down here."

Tori shrugged. "I was there when the kraang attacked the bridge. The guys saved me and brought me down here."

April's eyes widened in shock, emotions easily read in the pools of her blue eyes. "I'm so sorry! That must have been awful. You look like you're okay though; that's good."

Tori couldn't really come up with a response so she just shrugged again. Physically she was just dandy. Psychologically she would get over it, but emotionally she was a wreck. After years of practice and acting classes, she had learned to hide what she was feeling, but it didn't mean she hurt any less. She had allowed herself one day to grieve, and that's all she was letting the world see. Finally she managed to say: "Joys of being a super-healing mutant." April's eyes widened, if possible, even more.

"You're a mutant? But you don't look like one." Donnie finally jumped back into the conversation and rescued Tori from having to explain.

"Think more along the lines of X-Men," he rationalized. "She looks normal to us, but at a cellular level, she is something completely new and unheard of. When the Kraang set off that bomb, they weren't just trying to kill everyone; they were trying out a new kind of mutagen. One that didn't affect her physical appearance."

April was, for lack of a better word, impressed. "Wow," she said. "Must be nice." Her eyes widened as she realized how that could be taken. "Not that getting blown up or mutated is a good thing- or a bad thing! Nothing wrong with being a mutant, it's just... I'm gonna stop talking now."

Tori laughed good naturedly and waved it off. "Your fine. No it wasn't fun being 'blown up' but having a mutation like this to help with bumps and bruises is nice."

April relaxed now knowing she wasn't faced with a snobbish city kid with a taste for dramatics. The conversation was moved to the "living room" as everyone went back to their previous activities.

"So where are you from?" April asked. "I don't think I've seen you before at my school."

And so for the next 4 hours, Tori bonded with April swapping stories of her adventures in Montana for April's tales about the trials of living in New York City. Although Tori herself had never been too great at making friends, the two seemed to click- both desperate for a friend that was not a giant talking turtle- or a guy.

At around 6:30, Mikey pulled a few boxes of frozen pizza out of the freezer.

"We have... Mega Men's All Meat Pizza... Super Spicy Italian With Pineapple... Cheese Lovers 15 Kinds of Cheese Cheesiness... aaaaaand... JELLY BEAN, ANCHOVIES, AND JALAPENO!" He presented with a flourish.

Tori looked at the last one in fascination... and disgust. "I didn't know they made... Jelly bean, anchovy and jalapeno pizza..." Raph snorted.

"They don't. Mikey just has a weird taste in food and made it up himself."

April left to go back to her aunt's house after pizza and at 8 o'clock sharp, Tori and the guys ran topside.

Raph was charged with the responsibility of keeping an eye on Tori should she need help to which he complained about not wanting to deal with a damsel in distress and she pointed out that she didn't need a babysitter. Leo just told them to deal with it and before they could argue, he was already climbing a ladder to the surface.


	5. New Friend, Old Enemy (Part 1)

Chapter Five:

Tori was well aware of her unhealthy addiction to adrenaline. She was well aware that running around in the dark hiding from all human beings was "un-lady-like". She was well aware that what she was doing was probably illegal. She was also well aware that she really didn't care.

Back in Montana she had done her fair share of parkour, breaking curfew, and parkour while breaking curfew; but racing across the rooftops with the turtles was like parkour on steroids. Whether they were always this much fun on the surface or whether they were just showing off since she was there, she had no idea, but it was awesome!

As they neared a large gap between the roofs, Donnie raced ahead, determined gleam in his eyes.

"Check it out!" He called as he sailed across the gap performing a front flip and emitted a cry that sounded suspiciously like "Yippee!"

Next was Mikey who did a rather impressive step up on to the side of a small water tower, also performing a front flip.

"Haha!" He shouted triumphantly as Donnie clapped. Raph, Leo, and I all skidded to a halt that looked across the intimidating 30 foot gap. "Take that turtle chumps!" Mikey called. Donnie gestured challengingly to the gap. Leo, of course, took the bait.

"Alright guys," he said smirking confidently as he backed up a good 20 feet. "Check this out." He ran a few feet, did two front hand springs, a front flip, and rebound with an aerial twist.

Mikey oohed in awe of his oldest brother as Leo looked back at Raph and I, a challenge written all over the cocky look he was giving us. He didn't actually think a normal human being could leap over a 30 foot chasm of death, did he? Next to me, Raph wasn't nearly as nervous.

"Cute kiddies," he sneered, but not in the unfriendly judging way Tori had come to know in the last two days. He cracked his neck, took a running leap- and bulldozed shoulder first into his brothers, effectively creating a dizzy dog-pile.

Moaning in complaint, they all got back to their feet as Raph cackled.

"Hey what was that?" Donnie exclaimed. "You didn't do any flips!"

"Oops!" Raph obviously didn't care as he continued to grin like an idiot; a grin that Tori had to admit was sort of adorable- if the person wearing that sort of adorable smile hadn't just abandoned her of the other side of the gap.

"Hey, guys! You seem to forget that I can't jump across 30 foot gaps!" She shouted, only a little irritated. Raph looked over his shoulder at her and winced.

"Oops..." he repeated, a little more remorseful. He quickly went back for her and gave her a quick piggy back ride. "Is there anything else your highness requires?" He asked cheekily. She slapped his shoulder, cheeks flaming, and was about to retort when they all heard the screech of metal against metal.

They all snapped to attention immediately and Leo led them all to hide behind the stairwell entrance. They waited, silently awaiting Leo's signal. After a moment of hesitation, the turtle in blue unsheathed his katanas, the rest of the ninjas following suit. Tori just settled for clenching her fists, adrenaline already pumping.

All at once they stepped out of their hiding place, finding their dreaded opponent to be...

A black and white kitten with huge green eyes, grooming itself. It looked up at them innocently with a mew that melted Tori's heart and almost had her gushing in tears of sheer adorableness.

"Don't give up, Leo," Raph said encouragingly, his cheeky grin making a reappearance. "You might actually win this fight."

"Awww!" Mikey and Tori gushed at the same time, rushing forward.

"It's a little kitty!" Mikey picked up the kitten to tickle its belly as Tori peered over his shoulder. "And it's name is-"

"MITTENS!" Called a man from the next apartment building.

"Good guess," Mikey said before realizing that hadn't been one of his brothers. "Wait, who said that?"

"Mittens?" The man continued to call.

Mikey wandered toward the voice and the rest followed him to see a middle-aged man with a brown comb-over and a white button down shirt.

"I think that's the owner," Donnie observed. Immediately Mikey upped and started walking towards the man. Donnie, Leo, Raph, and Tori and jumped up in surprise.

"What are you doing?"

"Whoa, hey!"

"Mikey, wait!"

"Stop!"

Mikey stopped and looked back in surprise. "What? I'm returning Mittens to her owner." He said innocently.

"Are you an idiot!?" Raph blurted. Tori elbowed him and gave him a glare. Raph rolled his eyes at her. "Wait, let me rephrase that; you're an idiot!" Tori's scowl deepened and she elbowed him again even harder.

"Ow!"

"Be nice to Mikey; he doesn't understand. It's not his fault."

Donnie stepped forward, now taking charge of the situation.

"You can't show yourself to a human," he explained. Mikey still didn't understand and took another tentative step towards the edge of the roof.

"Why not?" He asked.

"Because they'll freak the heck out, that's why not!" he blurted. Tori didn't object this time because she knew he was right. Mikey wasn't so easily convinced though.

"No, they won't. Tori didn't," he pointed out.

Raph dismissed that idea immediately. "Tori doesn't count; she's a weirdo too."

"Excuse me?"

He ignored her and continued on. "You're an ugly, green mutant armed with ninja weapons. Any normal person would go running for the hills at the sight of you."

The youngest of the turtles still refused to be dissuaded. "Look, this guy's gonna see that I'm just a regular, cat-loving dude like him. Next thing you know, we'll be best buds. This is gonna be awesome!" And before anyone could stop him, Mikey jumped across the slightly more narrow gap onto the guy's fire escape. The rest of them panicked and flailed as they tried to get him to come back.

"No!"

"Mikey!"

"Don't!"

"Wait!"

They all watched in horror. They knew it was going to be like a train wreck but none of them could look away. They all hoped that this was the one in two million people who wouldn't freak out.

Mikey jumped down right in front of the man and grinned happily, holding out Mittens in the palm of his hand.

"Hi!" he said. "Here's your-" he didn't even get to finish as the man screamed in open terror.

"AHHHH! Ugly, green mutant freak!" Mikey jumped back in alarm, clutching the kitten to his chest.

"But I got your cat!" he tried to explain. The man took it the wrong way.

"Help! He's got my cat!" Now Mikey was starting to panic. This wasn't at all what he was expecting. Tori would have given anything to go down and help him, as she was sure all his brothers felt, but they were forced to sit up on the roof and just watch the tragedy unfold like Shakespeare.

"Dude, chill!" Mikey tried again, holding Mittens out for the man to take. "I'm just-" Mittens chose that moment to turn into a ferocious little beast and attacked Mikey's face as the owner slammed the window shut and retreated inside to safety. Mikey screamed and flailed as the howling little monster mauled his face- or tried to anyway. He back up too far, tripped, and fell over the side of the fire escape.

Tori flinched in sympathy, Leo closed his eyes to ward off the unwanted sight, Donnie watched with squinting eyes, and Raph did a facepalm. As Mikey got his bearings, his brothers jumped down to the ground and Tori slid down a gutter drainage pipe. They surrounded him and as far as they could tell, Mikey was fine.

He pouted, refusing to meet their gaze, and stood, only to reveal the kitten still attached to his shell and sharpening its claws on his back. Obviously it didn't hurt, but it was still disheartening.

"Someone want to help me with this?" he asked.

"No." All three of his brothers said angrily. Tori took pity, picked the kitten up by the scruff, and gently tossed it down the alley where it scampered off with one last yowl. Mikey watched it do with a dejected kicked-puppy look.

"Face it Mikey," Raph said. "Humans will never understand you. Heck, we don't even understand you."

Tori rolled her eyes. "What he means is, humans are often afraid of new things they can't explain. It's not your fault that you're different, it's just that a lot of people have a hard time keeping an open mind; which is why you should listen to us when we tell you not to interact with them. They wouldn't understand that you're only trying to be friendly."

Mikey let it sink in as he started accepting the cold hard truth. "Yeah..." He let his eyes wander up until he saw a new billboard and his eyes lit up with childlike hope again. "But I bet that guy would!" They all followed his gaze to see a giant billboards depicting the "awesomeness" of none other than the martial arts New York Wonder, Chris Bradford. Their shoulders slumped as they realized the lesson still had not sunk in.

"Chris Bradford," Leo drawled. "The martial arts superstar. With a chain of dojos across the country. He's your soulmate?"

Mikey swung his nunchucks around and struck the same pose as the man on the billboard. "We've got so much in common," he said excitedly. Donnie wasn't as impressed.

"What if you stopped standing like that?" he asked. Mikey's shoulders slumped, but only a little.

"We'll have a little less in common," he admitted. "But still a lot. And look, he's in town for a Martial Arts Expo. Maybe he'll show me his secret kata, "The Death Dragon." And I'll show him my secret kata, "The Secret Kata."

Leo, Raph, Donnie and Tori still weren't impressed.

"Catchy," Donnie said sarcastically. Apparently said sarcasm was lost on Mikey as he started showing off his "secret kata".

"Check it out!" He said. He proceeded to kick and punch thin air, then did something that looked like a windshield wiper, another kick, and a robot dance move. Besides her, Tori could feel Leo tensing up with each passing second of the "Kata", obviously not pleased that it was completely ineffective and not one that Splinter had taught him. Mikey was plenty pleased with himself though.

"Now don't tell anyone you saw that," he stage whispered.

"No problem," Leo hissed back. At that moment, Tori thought she heard the light pattering of feet from above, and became distracted from the conversation as she tried to figure out where it had come from. No one else seemed to have heard it though.

"Face it, Mikey," Raph said. "Chris Bradford is the last person on Earth that would be friends with you. Well, tied for last, with everyone else on Earth." Mikey pouted but before he could even think of defending himself, Tori interrupted the argument with a startled, "Look out!"

She plowed over Raph and Mikey as a throwing star sliced through the air, right where Mikey and Raph had been standing. All around them, ninjas slid down on ropes or jumped down from the roofs above, effectively surrounding them. Raph, Mikey, and Tori all leapt back to their feet, drawing out their weapons or, in Tori's case, picking up a metal pipe.

"Ninjas!?" Donnie exclaimed. "In New York? Other than us?" For a few tense moments, it was like a Western movie standoff. No one moved, they just stared, sizing up their opponents and looking for weaknesses. Tori noticed that all four of the turtles formed a protective circle around her. They were well aware that she was the weak link in this situation, and they were outnumbered by many obviously well trained martial artists.

Finally, one of the black clad ninjas broke the stillness by throwing another shuriken at Donnie. Said turtle blocked it with his staff, but the sharp metal cut almost all the way through the wooden staff. Donnie growled and everything was thrown into a frenzy of motion. The turtles didn't even have to speak to each other. They all took on their own group of ninjas, thinning the crowd best they could as Tori stood in the center, not wanting to get in the way of the actual fighters, but not wanting to be dead weight either. Raph fought of 3 of them in quick succession, and noticed her dilemma.

Before she could blink, Raph had run back to her, picked her up, and hid her behind a dumpster. "Stay here," he ordered. Tori's stubborn pride took ground that moment and she bristled at the idea of acting like a damsel in distress.

"Don't tell me what to do!" she hissed. Raph didn't even stick around to argue with her. Out in the open, the turtles were having a hard time keeping the hordes at bay. While Master Splinter had done well in training them over the years, they were still grossly outnumbered. About 10 feet away, Leo was taking on three at a time, but a fourth one was creeping up behind him. Tori felt the adrenaline come back to her like a flash flood and sprung forward to help him before the thought had even completely formed.

She hit the ninja over the head with the metal pipe and he slumped to the ground, out cold. Leo looked over his shoulder and grinned. "Nice hit." He said. Tori smiled back and went around doing the same to some of the other ninja. Apparently they hadn't deemed her a threat, so she had the element of surprise on her side.

Raph kicked another two ninjas away and found himself back to back with Leo, who still had a wide smile on his face.

"Why are you so happy?" Raph asked him, locking blades with another ninja. Leo just continued smiling away.

"It's just nice to finally be fighting people, instead of robots, or aliens, or weed-monsters."

"Weed-monsters?" Tori asked, picking up a pair of abandoned katanas and fighting off a few unsuspecting opponents. "What kind of crazy stuff do you guys get yourselves into in your free time?"

Leo just laughed and continued fighting away. Suddenly, a large, sturdily built man wearing a metal helmet and face shield slammed into the ground, bringing everyone's attention to him. He wasted no time in throwing a punch at Leo, knocking him out of commission. Raph noticed his older brother in trouble and leapt in to help but was promptly kicked in the gut by the same hulk of a man. Raph sailed down the alley landing at Tori's feet, arms wrapped around his abdomen and he curled in on himself in pain.

Next, mystery man went after Donnie. The purple clad turtle tried to vault over him, but the man grabbed his bo staff, and swung him around and into a brick wall.

Mikey gulped fearfully and threw the bladed end of his kusarigama at the man who caught it and pulled Mikey forward. Mikey screamed and clung to his end on the chain on instinct. The man caught him by the shell and held him close, inspecting him.

"What are you?" The man growled. Mikey blinked, used the man's stomach as a springboard, and leapt back to safety, still trying the pull his kusarigama away from the perpetrator. Tori knew the masked man wasn't about to give up so easily, so in one fluid movement, she jumped forward and mustering all the strength she had, cut the chain. She stood defensively in front of Mikey and soon the rest of the turtles stood around her, doing the same.

Police sirens sounded in the distance. Apparently the guy with the cat had called for back up and they were about to arrive. The man in the mask, obviously the leader of this particular group of ninja, looked over his shoulder at the sound, glared at the turtles, and made a hasty retreat.

The turtles exchanged uneasy glances and faded into the shadows. Raph, without a word, grabbed Tori, pulled her onto his back in another piggy back ride, carried her up onto the roof again.

"Alright guys, no more fooling around," Leo said. "Let's go to the hotel as quickly as possible and get back to the lair so we can tell Master Splinter what happened." They all nodded in agreement and disappeared into the night. No more parkour.

The trip to the hotel was quick and uninterrupted. Tori got in, let the guys in through the window, and started hurriedly throwing all of her stuff into her bag. After making sure she had all of her stuff, she also rummaged through the bags of her family members as momentous. The guys watched silently as she picked up a small yellow bear from a toddler's play pen and stared at it sadly, blinking back tears. She had not cried once since she had come to New York, and she refused to show weakness now.

She also took an Iron Man action figure, a pair of tiny baby shoes, her mom's pillow, her dad's military cap, a pendant from her grandmother's jewelry box, her grandfather's travel box of magic tricks, and her cousin's sketchbook. She gave the room one last look, making sure she had everything she wanted and needed, and left out the window with the guys, never having spoken a word.

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

As soon as they got back to the lair, Tori disappeared into the room that was now dubbed "her's" until further notice. Exhausted from the long fight, Donnie, Raph, and Mikey all turned in to their respective rooms. Leo stayed in the kitchen, to explain the attack to Master Splinter who was stroking his beard thoughtfully as he listened.

"Their leader was crazy good," he said. "By which I mean he was good and seemed a little crazy. Besides, he had all these guys with him. It it wasn't a fair fight." At this, Splinter looked up from his contemplated silence.

"What do you mean, 'fair fight'?" he asked curiously. Leo looked at his sensei in surprise and a little suspension.

"A... fair fight. You know, where either side could win?" Splinter still showed no sign of understanding.

"So a fair fight is a fight you could lose?" He said slowly. Leo instantly knew vaguely where this conversation was headed and tried to backtrack.

"Well, yes, but - Well, what I what I mean is -"

"You don't want to assure your victory," Splinter went on, ignoring his son's stuttering.

"No, I do, but- Ow! Hey!" Rather than waiting for him to finish trying to explain, Master Splinter whipped out at Leo's feet with his tail, knocking him to the ground and trapping him beneath his green crystal staff.

"Was that fair?" Splinter asked simply.

"No!" Leo shouted, obviously not pleased.

"Did I win?" At his master's teasing smile, the meaning of the lesson finally set in.

"I see your point." Splinter nodded assertively, and helped his son so his feet.

"Seek victory, not fairness." He said wisely. Leo bowed his head.

"Hai sensei." Leo replied respectfully. Splinter was about to return to the dojo when he paused a moment longer.

"How did Miss Victoria fair during this fight?" he asked, honestly curious. Leo looked up and saw the contemplative look of a new idea forming on his father's face.

"She actually did pretty good." Leo admitted, walking up to stand beside him. "Nothing amazing, but not bad for someone who's never received any training. She didn't back down or hide, and actually helped out quite a bit. At one point she even picked up a katana and was holding it right."

"Interesting," Splinter hummed before continuing on his way. "We must keep an eye on our new visitor. She could prove to be quite a talented kunoichi."

Leo watched his sensei and considered it. She had been very brave in the fight, and could prove to be a valuable addition to the team- with the right training. As an added bonus, she was proving to be quite effective against Raph's attitude.

"Hai sensei," he said again.

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

To say Raph was tired was an underestimate. Training had been particularly difficult as everyone was trying hard to show off in front of their new guest (himself included he later found out), and he had used a lot of energy running across the rooftops (again showing off his skills with his brothers) not to mention the fight with a group of real ninja.

He heard everyone else getting ready for bed as he fed Spike and when it was quiet, he went to take a shower and brush his teeth. Crawling into bed after a day like that felt like heaven. From the sound of things, everyone else was already asleep. He was about to join them in Dreamland when he heard a quiet tapping on his door.

For a moment, he held his breath, thinking of a similar situation happening the night before. He slowly pulled himself out of bed again and opened the door. And there she was.

She was no longer in her shriveled up clothes from earlier and wasn't covered in soot and ashes. Instead she was wearing fluffy Nightmare Before Christmas pajama pants, and a dark purple tank top. She had taken a shower (probably while he was feeding Spike) and now had a healthy glow about her pale skin. He could now tell she in fact had black hair (not ash grey or brown) and had a light dusting of freckles across her nose, but not as obvious as Mikey's. If anything she looked like a punk Snow White.

 _'Skin as pale as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair black like ebony_.' he recalled from the old fairy tale story Mikey used to have Splinter read.

She was holding her pillow- her mom's pillow he realized with a start- and looking up at him sheepishly. She didn't even have to say a word. He opened the door wider, stepped aside and gestured for her to come on in. She went straight to the hammock in the corner and crawled in. He noticed she was clutching the little yellow teddy bear from the crib at the hotel and felt his stomach twist.

Had that little bear belonged to a little brother or sister? The thought made this heart ache. He couldn't bear the thought of losing Mikey or Donnie like that, or even Leo who was, admittedly, the oldest. He watched her snuggle down into the pillow before returning to his bed.


	6. New Friend, Old Enemy (Part 2)

Chapter Six:

The next evening found Raph doing pushups balanced on the tips of his sai, and listening in on the conversation going on between Donnie, April, and Tori, throwing in his two cents every once in awhile. Tori was now wearing cargo pants, tennis shoes, a form fitting Superman t-shirt, and her dad's military camo cap. Mikey was fan-girling over a magazine all about Chris Bradford.

He squealed for the hundredth time that morning. "Whoa," he said aloud, getting the attention of Tori and April. "That's so rad! Oh, I wish me and Chris Bradford were friends!" He then proceeded to kiss the magazine and fall back on his shell, kicking his feet in excitement.

"Mikey, you already have two human friends." April said with a smile. Mikey just stared at her blankly, and April had to elaborate, "Tori and I!"

"You guys don't count," he said with a wave of his hand. "We saved your lives, you have to like us."

"Too bad there's no place for freaks to meet people where no one can see how hideous they are," Raph said half heartedly.

Tori considered his claim for a bit. "Hmm, Vegas?" she suggested. Raph gave her a weird look, trying to decide if she was joking or not.

"Uh, no."

April suddenly sat up straighter, an idea presenting itself. "Wait, maybe there is a place; the internet! Tori, can I see your laptop?"

"Sure thing!" Tori logged off of her iTunes account and handed the laptop to April and watching over her shoulder with Donnie.

She got onto a website called "MyFace"; a strange combination between MySpace and Facebook.

"Check it out," she said. "It's a site where you can make friends with anybody online."

"Sweet!" In his excitement, Mikey bumped April onto Donnie's lap (who immediately turned beat red) and knocked Tori over the back of the couch.

"Ow..."

Mikey ignored them and typed furiously, creating a new account, searched his idol, and then gasping in excitement.

"Ohh, Chris Bradford's on here! He'll be my first friend!" Mikey sent a friend request and leaned forward, his nose almost touching the screen, waiting for a reply as April crawled out of Donnie's lap and Tori stood up, rubbing her head.

"Mikey," April laughed. "People don't always respond immed-" DING! "But sometimes they do..."

Mikey's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "No way! Chris Bradford has accepted my friendship! I have a friend! Thanks, April!" He threw his arms around her in a tight hug making Donnie squawk indignantly.

"Uh, you're welcome Mikey."

Mikey tossed the computer high into the air and jumped off the couch, heading for the exit. Tori gasped and jumped over the couch, landing in a belly flop as she just barely caught the laptop in time.

"Hey, where are you going?" Donnie asked in alarm, helping Tori to her feet.

"To hang out with my friend, Chris Bradford," Mikey said innocently.

"This guy's famous," April tried to reason. "He probably has thousands of 'friends'."

Mikey still wouldn't be deterred. "And guess who's number 5,286?" Tori, Donnie, Raph, and April all stared at him.

"Uh... you?"

"Daniel Ramirez!" Mikey said as if that proved his point. Tori tilted her head in confusion.

"The professional boxer?" she recalled.

"Yep! And I'm right next to him. Later!" With that said, Mikey jumped over the subway turnstiles and out of the lair. Silence followed as they each tried to figure out if they should follow him of not.

"Well, this ought to be interesting," Donnie said.

April twiddle her thumbs nervously. "Should we go after him?"

Raph looked after his brother before shrugging and finally getting to his feet. "Eh, he's gotta learn somehow..." He thought for a moment longer before looking at Tori. "How do you know who Daniel Ramirez is?"

Tori crossed her arms defensively. "Girls are allowed to watch fights on T.V. too!"

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

It was hours before Mikey finally came back. April had already left and the guys were getting ready to go on patrol. Leo was the first one to notice him.

"Mikey where have you been? I thought we were gonna have to leave without you!" Mikey gave him a smug smile.

"Oh you know, I was just hanging out... with my friend."

Donnie and Raph exchanged a look. There's no way Mikey had actually spent 3 hours with Chris Bradford... was there? Tori, who had heard the exchange from her room, came wandering out to join them.

Leo was the only one out of the loop. "Your friend?" he asked in confusion.

"Yep," Mikey said popping the 'P'. "My new best friend Chris Bradford!"

All the jaws in the room dropped. "What!?"

"Thats right! Chris Bradford accepted my friend request." He crossed his arms and grinned triumphantly.

"Hold on Mikey," Donnie said. "You mean to tell us that you just spent 3 hours hanging out with _the_ Chris Bradford? Not an imaginary friend?"

"Yeah! We talked about ninja stuff, and comic books, and pizza, and-"

"That's great Mikey," Leo interrupted. "But we have to get going." All four of them started racing out to the subway tunnel when Mikey noticed that Tori wasn't following.

"Aren't you coming with us?" he asked. She smiled at his thoughtfulness, and shook her head.

"No, not this time Mikey. Master Splinter said he wanted to talk to me, and then I have some other stuff to sort out." Mikey nodded, gave her one last smile, and ran off.

Tori watched them go then went to the dojo where Master Splinter was waiting for her.

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

Donnie and Leo leaned over the edge of the roof they had been standing on the night before.

"They must have been watching us from here," Leo pointed out. "The perfect place to stage an ambush."

Donnie frowned in distaste. "That wasn't very fair, was it?"

Leo flashed back to the night before and the conversation he had with Master Splinter about 'fairness'. "It's not about fairness. It's about victory." He quoted forcefully.

Donnie took the stress on words the wrong way and held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, I'm sorry."

Behind them, Mikey was still chattering away to Raph about his time with Chris Bradford. "And then and then Chris Bradford put on his hakama. Man, that guy can rock a hakama!"

Raph grumpily rolled his eyes. "Yeah, maybe he'll wear it again when he takes you to the prom," he snarked.

Mikey remained oblivious- or just pretended not to hear it. "And then after that, he-"

Finally the red clad turtle had enough of 'Chris Bradford' and snapped in annoyance, "Oh, enough! You've been going on about this for three hours!"

"Ooh, someone sounds jealous." Mikey replied cheekily. "You just can't admit that you were the "R" word."

Raph started in surprise and blinked up at Mikey. Donnie and Leo glared accusingly at Raph.

'He doesn't know the 'R' word,' Raph mused. ' So what did he mean?'

At the lack of a reaction from any of his brothers, Mikey felt the need to elaborate. "Rong?"

All three of his brothers groaned and Donnie did a facepalm.

"I'm not wrong," Raph scowled.

"Oh, yeah? You're just cranky because your girlfriend couldn't come," Leo spluttered a laugh and Donnie looked on in confusion. Raph's scowl just got even deeper as he muttered, "She's not my girlfriend."

"Fine. If you don't want to talk about my new friend, I've got two other brothers who do." Mikey jumped over and put his arms around Leo and Donnie, both of whom shook him off.

"Actually, I'd rather talk about anything else," Leo said bluntly.

"Like the concept of the silent 'W,' perhaps?" Donnie added dryly.

The unenthusiastic energy from his brothers finally got through to him as he crossed his arms.

"Fine. I'll go talk to a guy who likes to talk about Chris Bradford more than anyone else: Chris Bradford." With that he hopped down off the roof and went to go find his new "Friend".

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

When Master Splinter had first asked to speak to Tori alone, she couldn't get a read off of him. She always prided herself at being very good at reading people, but his mysterious ways were out of her grasp. She thought perhaps it had something to do with her living situation. She knew she very well could not invade their home forever. For now she had no choice as the Kraang were after her, but what about after that?

She also figured that he, like any other concerned parent, was apprehensive about sharing his home full of teenage guys with a teenage girl.

Taking in a deep calming breath,Tori knocked lightly on the dojo sliding screen door.

"Come in Miss Queen," came the deep rumble from the other side of the door. She slowly, silently, opened the door, slipped inside, and closed the door behind her. Splinter was sitting cross-legged in front of the large tree with his back to her. While watching training the last two days, she had seen the utmost respect the turtles had shown him and felt like she could do something wrong at any minute. The last thing she wanted was to insult the honorable and yet still intimidating man.

Following the lead of the others from earlier, she walked lightly around the tree and keeled respectfully in front of him. His eyes were closed, and she suddenly felt awkward, wondering if perhaps he had not heard her come in.

"I see that you are fitting in well with my sons and their young friend April," he said suddenly, eyes still closed. Tori squirmed uncomfortably, trying to come up with the most polite way to answer him.

"Yes sir, they have all been very kind and understanding of my situation," she said finally. To her relief, he nodded approvingly and finally opened his eyes, regarding her carefully.

She was small for a human her age; smaller even than April. But, she was by no means weak. Already she had proven strength both in mind and body.

"I have been watching you in the three days you have been here and I will admit I find you very intriguing," he admitted. Tori felt her cheeks heat up.

"Uhh, thank you sir."

"During your stay, it has also occurred to me that you may well need training in the art of self defence should you be confronted by the Kraang in the near future," he continued. Tori's breath caught in her chest and she waited for him to continue in anticipation.

"Leonardo has informed me that you were very resourceful and fearless in the battle against the foot clan ninjas. What would your thoughts be in training under me to be a kunoichi- a female ninja?" A million different thoughts occurred to Tori at once as she struggled to keep an outwardly calm appearance.

"It would not be an easy experience and will be over taxing on you physically, mentally, and spirituality," he warned.

A kunoichi? What an honor it would be! To learn in the way of ninjitsu like the boys, learning how to truly protect herself lest she ever find someone trying to treat her like a "damsel in distress" again. The level of excitement rising inside her was almost unbearable.

"I would be honored!" she blurted. Splinter smiled approvingly at her.

"Very well then. We shall see about starting your training tomorrow morning." As he stood, she too scrambled to her feet. She suddenly wondered if maybe she was supposed to bow or crusty or if she should just thank him and leave, but he retired into a room on the other side of the dojo before she was forced to make any decisions.

Only then did she allow a goofy smile to find its way into her face. A kunoichi! She couldn't help but think about the look Raph would have on his face when he could no longer call her a helpless princess.

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

Tori was looking up basic information on the training involved in being a kunoichi when Leo, Raph, and Donnie returned.

"Hey guys," she said in surprise. "You're back early. It's only 9:30. Don't you usually stay out a little later?"

Leo shrugged and sat down in the patchwork beanbag chair and turning on the TV. "There wasn't anything going on, so we thought we'd turn in early, and hang out here." Donnie disappeared back into his lab and Raph wandered into the kitchen. Tori looked around, but didn't see the rambunctious youngest turtle.

"Where's Mikey?"

Leo rolled his eyes. "He's hanging out with his new 'friend,'" he said. Tori shrugged and went back to her research. The only problem was, she wasn't sure what was accurate and what wasn't. Each website said something a little different.

"Hey Leo?"

"Yeah?"

"You wouldn't happened to have a book on ninjutsu training or cultural values would you?"

He turned to look at her in surprise. "Uh yeah, maybe. Why do you ask?"

Tori signed off on her computer and set it down on a coffee table. "Splinter offered to train me to be a kunoichi, but I'm not really sure what that entails." Now she had his full attention, the TV only acting as background noise.

"What exactly do you want to know?" he asked. Honestly it was rather exciting to be talking to someone about his life's training, and he was sure he could answer most of her questions.

"Everything," Tori admitted. "I don't really know all that much about ninjutsu other than what I've seen during your training. I don't know the do's and don't during training, or how to act in the dojo and around Splinter. I don't know anything about your cultural values or beliefs. I don't know the basics to what kunoichi training would be requiring me to do. I'm about to jump into an ocean of unknown waters."

Leo nodded and thought for a moment. "Well, I can tell you one thing. A lot of it is going to have to be trial and error. Most of what you want to know can't be learned in a book." Tori nodded and waited for him to continue.

"Master Splinter has been teaching us ninjutsu since we were little kids, so I can't really remember what the beginning of our training was like, but one thing I do know is that he was very understanding and forgiving of our mistakes. True, he does sometimes have... interesting teaching methods, but he knows what he's doing, and he'll understand that you did not have the same upbringing as the four of us.

"Being a kunoichi, you'll probably be learning things a little differently than we did. Guys are trained more in the art of actual strength and wide ranges of weaponry. Girls are taught to focus more on one or two main weapons. Girls are naturally built differently than guys, so they can't always rely on brute strength. Instead they focus more on outlasting their opponents. Kunoichi also tend to be more flexible than the average ninja."

Tori nodded again, crossing her legs and leaning forward. Leo took this as a sign to continue and gladly went on lecturing.

"In the past, most kunoichi were trained in the art of seduction to infiltrate enemy lines, but some clans, including the one Master Splinter grew up in, thought of the trade as dishonorable and treated the women more fairly, so you don't have to worry about that. We would never ask you to do something like... that."

"Thank goodness," Tori muttered. Flirting was like a foreign language to her; teaching her to flaunt seduction would be like teaching the Kraang how to play charades.

"Seriously, you've got nothing to worry about. You'll do great!"

"Do great at what?" They both jumped and looked over to see Raph standing in the doorway.

"Tori's going to start training to be a kunoichi," Leo said happily. Tori watched Raph's reaction carefully. There was the brief look of surprise, but not the shock she had been hoping to see.

Dang.

Actually he seemed to take it in pretty easily.

"Huh really?" He pretended to look uninterested as he sat down on the couch with a slice of pizza, but he could not help but be a little curious.

Mikey chose that moment to come sailing into the lair. "Guys, you'll never guess what just happened!" he shouted.

"You found your brain?" Raph asked crankily. Donnie peeked his head out of his lab curiously, listening to see if he actually had something important to say.

"Chris Bradford taught me his secret Kata- The Death Dragon!"

Leo jumped up to his feet. "No way!"

"Yes way! Come one, I'll show you in the dojo."

Mikey excitedly lead them all to the dojo, Raph and Donnie following simply because they had nothing better to do, and Tori brought her laptop to take notes if she could.

"Alright so it starts with a left jab, then a double knee/kick to the gut, then he does a palm strike to the face, And then he kicks, twists, and sweeps the leg Ha! The death dragon!" Donnie, Leo and Tori awed at the new move. It sounded so easy even Tori herself could do it.

"Wow," she said, smiling. "Thats pretty cool Mikey."

"That was amazing!" Leo said.

"Yeah," Donnie agreed. "It's devastatingly effective and complex."

"And yet even Mikey could learn it." Tori frowned at Raph's off-putting choice of words, but didn't say anything. He just seemed to be in a bad mood.

"Thank you," Mikey smiled, then he processed Raphs words. "Heyyy..." he whined.

Suddenly Tori's computer let out a 'DING' saying she had gotten a message of some sort, but she was logged out off all her social media pages.

Mikey apparently knew who it was. "Ooh! Rad-Brad!" He zipped over to her laptop as the 'MyFace' website popped up. "That's my little name for him." He informed. "He wants to get together for a little B-ball. Can't wait to find out what the 'B' stands for!"

"Probably Baseball," Tori pointed out.

"Sweet! Maybe he can teach me what that is!" Tori had to resist from doing a facepalm. Mikey turned and started heading towards the exit.

"You're going now?" Leo asked. "You just got back."

"Sorry, dudes, human friend stuff. You know how it is." He walked all the way out the exit before reappearing. "Oh, wait. No, you don't." He left again, cackling.

They all stared after him for a few moments. "It's actually kind of sad how accurate that statement was..." Tori said. They all exchanged a grimace.

"So, is anyone up for trying out The Death Dragon?"

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

Tori watched carefully with Donnie as Leo made his 21st attempt at doing the Death Dragon; but Raph saw it all coming.

"Nope, not quite," he said, catching Leo's fist and jumping over his leg sweep.

Leo thought about it for a moment longer. "Ooh! I think I got it!"

Tori heard Master Splinter enter the dojo beside her just as Leo manage to perfectly execute 'The Death Dragon.'

"Where did you learn that!" He roared. They all jumped, and Leo helped Raph to his feet.

"Mikey learned it from his new friend." Leo explained.

"The man who taught him that kata is no friend!" Splinter said, eyes wide. "It comes from the Shredder."

"Shredder?" Donnie's eyes widened as well.

Leo stepped forward. "You mean Bradford is one of his students?"

"He must be!"

Tori suddenly got the gut feeling that Mikey wasn't learning how to play baseball.

"So Bradford's just pretending to be Mikey's friend to get to you," Leo realized, exchanging a horrified look with Donnie.

Much to Tori's surprise, a look quite the opposite appeared on Raph's face.

"Ohh, what a relief!" he said. "Everything makes sense again." Tori felt her face flush in outrage, but then Raph finally took on the same look as her brothers. His green eyes widened in worry; his protective older brother side finally kicking in. "Mikey's in trouble!"

"Then we have to save him!" Leo said, drawing out his katanas. Donnie tapped his chin thoughtfully.

"But we're going to need a plan," he said. "They're undoubtedly going to use Mikey as bait for a trap."

"I have an idea," Tori said quietly. They all looked at her in surprise.

"Well then, out with it!" Raph said impatiently.

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

The turtles had been more than enthusiastic about her plan, but they apparently hadn't wanted her to be in it.

"We don't want you to get hurt just because you get put in a dangerous situation." Leo explained. "It's ninja stuff; soon you'll be able to join us. But for now, just wait here."

And then they were gone.

Tori wanted to be mad at them and say they were acting like sexist pigs, but they weren't. Leo was right; until she had some training under her belt, she would only get in the way. They were highly trained ninja turtles. She was a teenage girl who had done gymnastics from the age of 4 until the gym she went to was turned into a tanning salon when she was 12.

She sighed again as she placed the length of the living room.

"I see that you are put at unease by the present situation," stated Master Splinter. She had heard him come in, but she had thought he was just passing through to make some tea in the kitchen.

"May I ask what is the matter?"

Tori shrugged uncomfortably and shoved her hands in her pockets.

"I don't know. I know they'll be fine, but I'm not used to sitting on the sidelines while people I care about are in trouble," she said.

Splinter tilted his head to the side. "Please explain."

Tori stopped pacing and turned face him. "Well usually, when I'm with my friends or-" she gulped and pressed forward. "Or my family, I'm like a mother hen. When someone I cared about was upset about something, it was always my job to give advice and make them feel better. When they were in danger of any sort, it was my job to protect them. Now I'm here and I feel..." she trailed of, and settled for staring at the floor.

"You feel inadequate at doing what has for so long been your job." She looked back up at him and he was giving her an understanding look.

"I know it sounds kind of stupid. Their ninjas, they know what their doing more than I do."

"It is not, as you would say, 'stupid' to worry. I sense in you a very loyal warrior who stands by the people she cares about, and what is good in the world. It is only natural that you would feel this way."

Tori smiled gratefully up at him.

"Thank you... sensei." He returned her smile, just as pleased to be called her sensei as she was to receive his counseling.

Their moment was interrupted by the rambunctious cheers of teenage boys, and the turtles all came zipping in, glowing in the success of their recent accomplishment.

"The bad guys have been flushed, the city is safe, and we have pizza!" Mikey all but screamed to the room. "Now it's time to part-ay!"

His statement was followed by the approving cheers of his older brothers. As they all settled down with their own slices of pizza, Donnie looked up at the only person who was not eating.

"Aren't you hungry Sensei?" he asked.

Splinter looked down at his sons and Tori, a frown stretching his lips. "I fear we are celebrating too soon."

"Too soon?" Raph repeated incredulously. "The bad guys were swept away in a river of raw sewage. By my watch, that makes it the perfect time."

Splinter shook his head. "Shredder knows I'm alive. And worse, he knows about all of you. It's my worst nightmare come true."

Tori bit her lip, thinking it best not to say anything.

"So it's not over?" Leo said, shoulders slumping.

"Oh, no," he shook his head. "It's just beginning." The mood of the "celebration" was instantly dampened, and they all lost their appetite.

Raph was distracted by the beeping of Tori's laptop and noticed Mikey staring at the profile of Chris Bradford, chin resting on his fist forlornly. Raph got up and sat next to him, crossing his arms.

"How're you doing Mikey?" he asked.

"This is all my fault," Mikey said mopily. "I should have never thought I could be friends with a human." He slouched forward even further and buried his head in his arms.

"Ehh don't be so hard on yourself," Raph said.

Mikey sat up a little straighter. "So it wasn't my fault?" he asked hopefully.

"Of course it was your fault."

Mikey sighed and slouched back down again. Raph thought hard for a moment before making a decision.

"I'll beat the green off of you if you tell anyone I said this but..." he patted Mikey's shoulder. "Your an awesome guy."

This didn't seem to cheer him up. "Bradford didn't think so," he said gloomily.

Raph shrugged. "Well he's a psychotic killing machine. You deserve way better friends than him."

This seemed to do the trick as Mikey sat up just a little bit straighter.

"You know what? You're right. Thanks Raph."

"Anytime, little brother." Raph left to rejoin the others before they became suspicious. Mikey glared at the offending picture of Bradford on 'MyFace.' And savagely clicked the delete button.

"UNfriend," he said with an innocently wicked smile. "Haha revenge!"

Mikey tried to feel proud of his new freedom from Bradford, but the feeling didn't last very long as he slouched forward again.

This time it was Tori who approached him. "Hey Mikey, what's the matter?" she asked.

"I still can't believe that Bradford was actually an evil ninja bad guy..." He said now staring at his empty friends list.

Tori bit her lip. "Well, I'd be lying if I said that a lot of people aren't like that. Sometimes our role models aren't as cool as we'd like to think.

Mikey nodded and proceeded to just delete his whole account. "I guess Raph was right. Maybe humans will never want us as their friends..."

Tori leaned forward even closer. "That's not true!" she insisted. "I'm your friend; and not because I have to be, but because I want to be."

Mikey looked up at her, and she almost melted at the childlike hope she saw there. She really was becoming quite the softy.

"Really?" Mikey asked.

Tori smiled truthfully. "Really really. So Mikey, will you give me the honor of being your human friend?"

"Yes!" They both grinned goofily at each other before Tori remembered something from earlier.

"Oh! That reminds me, I got something for you." She pulled a small parcel of wax paper from her red hoodie pocket.

Mikey wiggled in excitement.

"A present?"

"Sort of. I bought some fudge when I went up to the surface with April this afternoon. I want you to be the first to try it." She unwrapped the wax paper and broke off and chunk of the chocolate and placing it in his eager hands.

"Sweet!" He said before popping the fudge in his mouth. He chewed slowly, thoughtfully, before his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

"This..." He said slowly. "Is the best thing... I have EVER eaten!"

"I know." Tori crowed pleasantly before walking off to distribute the fudge to the rest of her new friends.


	7. Twilight Training

Chapter Seven:

Tori's mental alarm clock had only failed her twice in her life. Once when she had stayed up until 5:30 watching an Avengers marathon, and another time when she had a concussion from getting hit in the head by a baseball during her cousin's state championship baseball game.

So it was no surprise when she woke up at 6 o'clock on the dot. If she really wanted to, she could just roll over and go back to sleep; but that wasn't an option for all of three reasons. Reason number one being, she was in Raph's room... again. She didn't want to face an awkward morning of waking up at the same time as him and having to come up with an excuse as to why she had now spent 3 nights in a row using his hammock rather than the perfectly good (and unused) bed in her room.

The second reason was, Splinter, Mikey, and Leo would be getting up soon as well. She had already caught on to the morning routine of the lair. Splinter would get up at 6:30 and spend a few quiet minutes drinking herbal tea in the kitchen. After about 10 minutes, Leo would go in and join him. When they had both finished, they would go to the dojo for some early morning meditation. At around 7:00, Mikey would get up and start making breakfast. As this was going on, Donnie would all but crawl into the kitchen for a cup of coffee and watch Mikey, making sure he didn't make anything toxic. Then Raph, Splinter, and Leo would join them and eat breakfast together. Tori had been quick to catch on to their almost clockwork routine; she didn't want _anyone_ knowing that she couldn't bare to be alone in her room to sleep.

Reason number three was a lot more complicated. It had been a habit she had started when she first started getting up early for kindergarten as an impressionable 4 year old. She had to get up extra early because her mom had to drop her off before rushing to her early shift as a new doctor at the Hospital in central Dallas, Texas (where they had lived for a whole year.)

She remembered watching the sun rise over the sparkling city with awe that only a child could muster. Every day since, she had watched the sun rise. It meant hope for a new day, it meant that no matter how dark the night of yesterday was, there would always be light eventually- she just had to wait long enough to see it.

She had lied when she told Mikey her favorite color was sunset orange. It was actually the rare orange angelic glow of a perfect morning sunrise- but saying something like that would suggest she was actually girly in the least. So she had settled with something simpler and easy to say.

So now, she had half an hour to sneak up top, watch at least a few minutes of the sunrise, and come back down and start getting ready like she had never truly left. She had no idea what she was going to do when daylight savings came around and the sunrise was more around 7:15, but she would cross that bridge when she got there.

Peaking a glance at Raph, she saw that he was still buried under a pile of blankets. The slow rise and fall of his breathing informed her that he was still asleep. Next was the tricky part.

She knew he was a very light sleeper, so she had to move slowly, deliberately, to crawl out of the hammock without making it squeak. She brought her mother's pillow and little brother's bear with her and stepped lightly over a pile of comic books, silently opened the door, and slipped out without making a sound.

Not bad for a not-quite-yet-a-kunoichi. She quickly stuffed the pillow and bear on her bed, ran a brush through her wild spiky black hair, and ran for the exit.

"And where are you going so early this fine morning?" Came a very familiar yet completely unexpected voice from right behind her.

Never would she admit that suspicious yip came from her mouth.

"Master Splinter!" She breathed, clutching her chest. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

A glimmer of amusement shone in his kind eyes, but still held some suspicion.

"My apologies," he said. "I had thought that perhaps you had seen me, but you seemed to be in a rush."

Tori felt her chest tighten. There's no way she could lie to him about where she was going. First off, what would be her excuse? Besides, he had been so kind to her; she couldn't bare the thought of trying to deceive him. As if she could if she tried anyway. He had single handedly raised 4 boys.

What she was worried about though was that he would forbid her from going. If the Kraang were after her and he was insistent she always have someone with her, would he not allow her to go?

"I was just..." She gestured weakly to the exit and her speech petered off. He raised an eyebrow and waited for her to continue, and when she did not, he spoke himself.

"There is nothing in my home that goes on that I don't know about or do not find out about," he said. "I know that you have not once used the bed we have offered to you, and that you instead have been spending the nights in my second eldest son's room."

Tori's cheeks heated and was about to stutter the excuse that it wasn't what it looked like, but he held up a hand, effectively silencing her before she could speak.

"I know that nothing happens while you are in there. It was merely an observation." That amused and mischievous look returned briefly and Tori's cheeks burned if possibly even hotter.

"But I am also aware that you have disappeared every morning thus far only to return shortly thereafter. So, if you do not mind my asking, what is it you are doing?"

Tori took a deep breath to calm her nerves and let it out slowly. When her cheeks had cooled a little and her heart had slowed she looked him right in the eyes and told him the truth.

"I was going to watch the sunrise like I have every morning for as long as I can remember."

He regarded her carefully. He did not look disbelieving or suspicious; just curious.

"Interesting," he said, more to himself than her. "Very well. I shall see you upon your return and then we shall talk about your first day of training."

Tori almost couldn't believe how easy she had got off, but while she would normally look a gift horse in the mouth (as well as giving it a thorough full body examination), she took what she got and ran out the exit before she missed the sunrise.

The sun was just peaking over the New York City horizon when she pulled herself up onto the nearest roof. While it was nothing like the ones she had grown accustomed to in Montana, it was still a sight for sore eyes. The smog of the city added an abstract Picasso look to it.

Yep, life was looking a little brighter already.

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

When she returned to the lair, Splinter was no longer around, but she could hear quiet muttering coming from the dojo meaning he and Leo were already meditating. She wandered slowly back to her room and rummaged through her suitcase.

She had only packed enough clothes for one week. That was 7 outfits, an extra jacket, and a swimsuit. Already one outfit had been demolished beyond use. She was going to need more clothes or else do a lot of laundry.

She picked out a pair of loose fitting black Capri, and a Skrillex logo t-shirt. The best she could come up with for workout clothes.

Clattering from the kitchen told her that Donnie and Mikey were now in the kitchen and Raph would be waking up soon. Then she would finally get to start training as a kunoichi!

She almost skipped down the hallway but refused to act like a girlie girl.

At. All.

They all had a loud breakfast with scrambled eggs, toast, and-

"Pizza?" Tori laughed. "Again? Is that all you ever eat Mikey?"

He smiled proudly at his caffeinated pepperoni, egg and toast pizza. "You can never go wrong with pizza," he declared.

"When he says something like that, either ignore him or slap him," Raph said. "That's what we do."

"Hey, don't go slammin' on my breakfast of champions."

"So, Tori," Donnie said, drawing the conversation away from Mikey's eating habits. "You ready to start your training today?"

"Heck yeah!" she said. "No more of this hanging out in the sidelines business. I will not be anyone's damsel."

Donnie raised an eyebrow at her statement.

"I guess that's a good enough reason, but why are you always so concerned about that in particular?"

Tori cringed. "Sexism," she said plainly. "I've had to deal with it my whole life and it drives me insane. I have a few pet peeves, and one of them is the general expectation that I can't possibly survive without a man to solve all of my problems."

Mikey laughed uproariously. "They expect you to act like a helpless princess?" Mikey spluttered. "Dude, you're probably one of the last people on earth who would accept that role."

"That is pretty unfair," Donnie agreed.

Tori was suddenly struck by the thought that, while Raph was rather irritating with his teasing, the guys had never truly experienced how some women were treated or expected to act. They had lived in the sewers their whole lives, their only contact with the outside world being the News Channel, and cartoons.

She grinned at the revelation and continued digging into her eggs.

"Yeah well, as long as you guys don't treat me like that, I'm fine. The opinions of strangers don't matter to me; only my friends."

The rest of breakfast was spent listening to Mikey chatter about his newest comic book that he found in a dumpster outside a Teen's Behavior Correction Facility.

Then it was time for training.

Tori wasn't really sure what to expect on her first day of training. She had mostly assumed that she would be starting private lessons after the turtles own training exercise.

She had not predicted that Master Splinter would actually ask her to fight them.

"You want me to what now?" she asked.

"You will be sparring with Leo to see what skills you may possess that we can use to our advantage."

Tori and Leo exchanged a look.

"But sensei, if I hurt her-"

"Then we will know to start at level 1," Splinter interrupted. "Tori is more than capable of withstanding minor injuries. She is not as fragile as she appears to be."

Not sure if she should be flattered by his compliment or embarrassed by his more than likely misplaced faith in her, she stood and faced Leo in the center of the dojo, preparing to have her pride severely injured.

Leo uncertainty joined her, standing 7 feet in front of her. He took a strong fighting stance and Tori copied his form, feeling a little silly.

Off to the side, Raph was watching carefully with Mikey and Donnie. He had to hand it to her; he could already tell she was a fast learner. She perfectly copied Leo's first fighting stance, but that wouldn't save her in a fight.

Splinter also noticed the stance with a critical eye and called, "Hajime!"

It must have meant 'begin' or something, because the moment he said that, Leo ran at her with lighting speed, moving to strike her with his right first. She just barely had enough time to somersault under his arm and whipped around to face him again. She may not know much, but she knew not to allow him to be in any of her blind spots.

Leo immediately followed up his charge with a kick in her direction. She dodged it with a barrel roll to the side. His momentum was to fast and in the half second he was unbalanced, she leapt forward and kicked his other leg out from underneath him, and retreated back again, out of his reach.

While the "attack" had been unexpected from her, it did not do much as Leo simple went with the momentum this time and turned it into an aerial twist, almost kicking Tori in the face, but she avoided it by doing a backbend kick-over.

Boy was she thanking God for all those years of gymnastics now; but she needed to end this quickly before Leo stopped holding back.

Tori flashed back to a diagram of human pressure points she used to have taped on a wall in her room. There was one she remembered called the suprascapular nerve motor point that had proven to be quite effective in many situations. She had no chance of beating him by using pure instinct, or street fighting (she highly doubted Master Splinter would approve anyway), so she figured that pressure point was her best bet.

As Leo came back at her with a leg sweep, she jumped over his leg, and karate chopped the meeting point of his neck and shoulder as hard as she could, and her aim was perfect.

Leo let out a shout of surprise and pain and suddenly all that was left of him was his turtle shell. Tori stared in shock. He had pulled himself all the way inside his shell. She didn't even think it was possible for them to do that.

Silence filled the dojo until Mikey finally shouted, "What the shell was that!?"

She looked over, worried she had done something horribly wrong and against the rules, but Donnie was making mental notes and babbling about how their turtle nervous system must be more like humans than he had originally thought, Raph was rolling on the ground laughing about "Fearless leader", and Mikey was staring at her in something akin to awe.

When she looked back down at Leo, he was already sitting normally on the floor, a dazed look on his face. She offered him a hand and he took it with a smile.

"Good job," he said. "I can honestly say I wasn't expecting that." She smiled appreciatively and she could already feel her face getting warmer from all the praise she was receiving.

"You have to show me how you did that!" Raph said, finally calming down. "Then I can do that to him whenever he starts lecturing about responsibility." Leo was about to bite back but Master Splinter chose that moment to step in.

"Ya-mei!" he said. All four of the turtles fell into line and knelt in front of him. Tori, after a moment of awkwardly standing there, followed their lead and knelt next to Mikey.

"Well done Victoria," Splinter said. "I am very impressed with your ability to hold your own against a trained ninja." She squirmed a little, unused to the attention she was receiving.

"Thank you," she said humbly. "But I think I just caught him off guard. They are all used to fighting an enemy who also uses ninjutsu, or aliens wielding lasers. I did neither, and Leo did not want to risk hurting me."

Master Splinter thought on this for a moment. "Yes, I think you are most probably right, but your skills and knowledge of pressure points are still something to be spoken of. Who taught you?"

She blushed even redder still. "No one," she said. "I taught myself." He stroked his beard and hummed in interest.

"That is enough for today," he said. "I must consider what you have shown me before we continue your training later." She nodded and listened as he gave a training exercise to the boys guys, and watched them train for the next 4 hours.

This would either turn out to be the most fun or most challenging thing she had ever agreed to; but hey, what's life without a little bit of both?


	8. Raph and the Rapper

Chapter Eight:

"What are you doing in Tori's room?"

Mikey jumped and spun around to see Raph leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed. He kept his hands suspiciously behind his back and sat up stock straight.

"Nothing!" he squeaked. Raph raised an eyebrow, and strode forward intimidatingly. He held out his hand silently telling the younger terrapin to hand over whatever it was he had. Mikey slowly, sheepishly, held out his fist palm up, and opened it.

There in his green calluses hand, was a small silver iPod.

"I was looking around for her Diary or something, but found this instead." Raph looked from Mikey, to the iPod, to the door, and back.

He highly doubted Tori was the "Dear Diary" type, but a person could figure out a lot about someone through their music choice. It couldn't hurt to look through her songs list just to learn a little more about her, right?

Mikey noticed his look of indecision and smiled impishly.

"She doesn't get out of training for another hour, so she would never know."

Raph sighed. "Alright fine, but just a quick peak and then you put it back where you got it, alright?"

"Right."

Raph closed the door behind him and they both sat down on the bed. It was awkward trying to work the small iPod shuffle with such big fingers, but they eventually turned it on and tapped on the play list.

It was in alphabetical order, and right at the very top was-

"Alphabet Aerobics?" Mikey laughed. "She has the ABC's on her iPod?"

Raph wanted to laugh with him at the idea that big tough Tori had the Alphabet on her songs list, but he had the sneaking suspicion that wasn't the case.

"It not the ABC's," said a voice from the door. This time they both jumped and looked guilty at Tori.

"Uh yes you do. There's no denying it, it's right here in my hand," Mikey said waving the iPod around in the air.

Tori simply crossed her arms and smiled, a dangerously mischievous glint in her almond color eyes.

"I like the song because it's complicated." This time Mikey didn't even try to suppress his laugh. Raph chuckled too, but his stomach twisted at the sight of that smirk. The smirk that said she knew something that they didn't.

"Dude, even I know the Alphabet," Mikey said. "It's not that hard to learn."

"Oh I've learned it. It took me two weeks to get it right." Mikey laughed even harder, falling off the bed and shamelessly rolling on the ground. Tori waited patiently for him to quiet down, the quirk to her lips still holding back from a rather harsh smile.

"Alright then," she said. "If you think it's so easy, how about we listen to it and if you can do it too, I'll pay for all of your pizza for the next 5 years. If you can't do it perfectly, then you have to be my personal slave for the next month and bend to my every whim."

Now Raph knew that something terrible was about to happen. He also knew he probably wanted nothing to do with it. So he stayed quiet and dared not say anything. Tori caught on to his act immediately though.

"And if Raph can do it, I'll buy him any 10 exercise machines he wants. If not, he has to give me private ninjutsu training lessons for the next 3 months."

Raph raised his hands in surrender. "Whoa, hey, I didn't-"

"You are in my room looking into my private property to look at private information."

He lowered his hand and felt like his fate had just been sealed.

Curse karma for all its bad timing.

"Deal!" Mikey said. Tori held out her hand for the iPod and he handed it to her. She then took a small handheld speaker from the pocket of her suitcase and plugged it in.

Alphabet Aerobics was definitely not the ABC's.

It was in fact an insanely fast paced rap, rapidly telling a story using words that start with each letters of the alphabet in order. With each passing letter, Mikey's eyes grew wider, as did Tori's mischievous grin.

When the rap was finally over, Mikey and Raph had been stunned into silence.

"So," Tori said. "I will be expecting you to follow my every command to a tee and to start my private tutoring in ninjutsu tomorrow at 2:00."

"That's not fair!" Mikey complained. "It's impossible! No-one could possibly do that!"

The dangerous glint sparkled in her eyes again. Raph had to admit that while he would rather be spending the afternoon doing whatever he wanted on his own terms, he was rather drawn to the danger of that look. It seemed to make her more... alive. Fun. Not a goodie two shoes like she had been acting like so far.

"I can do it."

Mikey's jaw dropped to the ground.

"No way!"

Tori's arms crossed again.

"Uh, yes way. You wanna bet?"

Raph's eyes widened. "Uh no, we've learned our lesson and-"

"Yes!" Mikey interrupted. "If I win, I don't have to be your slave. If you win, I'll make you a whole cake pan of fudge for you to keep all to yourself."

"If I win, I could just order you to make fudge for me whenever."

"Fine, then I'll add another month to my enslavement."

Raph did a facepalm. Poor Mikey was never going to taste freedom again at this rate.

"Deal." Tori turned on her iPod again and this time it was the instrumental- no words to help her; just a beat to keep up with.

The squeaking of the DJ sounded the beginning and a rather boring woman started with an intro.

 _"Now it's time for our wrap up._

 _Let's give it everything we've got._

 _Ready? Begin."_

And so Tori began.

" _Artificial amateurs, aren't at all amazing._

 _Analytically, I assault, animate things._

 _"Broken barriers bounded by the bomb beat,_

 _Buildings are broken, basically I'm bombarding._

 _"Casually create catastrophes, casualties,_

 _Canceling cats got their canopies collapsing_."

At this point, Leo must have noticed the mysterious disappearance of Raph, Mikey and Tori and peaked into the room to watch, Donnie listening in behind him.

" _Detonate a dime of dank daily doing dough._

 _Demonstrations, Don Dada on the down low._

 _"Eating other editors with each and every energetic_

 _Epileptic episode, elevated etiquette._

 _"Furious fat fabulous fantastic,_

 _Flurries of funk felt feeding the fanatics_."

Now the beat was really picking up. By this point, Leo and Donnie's jaws had joined Mikey's on the floor as they all stared at the rap Goddess.

" _Gift got great global goods gone glorious,_

 _Gettin godly in his game with the goriest._

 _"Hit em high, hella height, historical_

 _Hey holocaust hymns hear 'em holler at your homeboy._

 _"Imitators idolize, I intimidate_

 _In an instant, I'll rise in an irate state._

 _"Juiced on my jams like jheri curls jockin joints_

 _Justly, it's just me, writing my journals._

 _"Kindly I'm kindling all kinds of kink on_

 _Karate kick type brits in my kingdom._ "

By this point even Splinter had joined the curious crowd of awestruck turtles. Although it was not quite what he had been expecting, it was entertaining to watch.

Tori didn't even appear to be out of breath, rather adding in hand gestures and head nods for emphasis.

" _Let me live a long life, lyrically lessons is_

 _Learned lame louses just lose to my livery._

 _"My mind makes marvelous moves, masses_

 _Marvel and move, many mock what I've mastered._

 _"Neighbors nap knowing I'm nice naturally,_

 _Knack, never lack, make noise nationally._

 _"Operation, opposition, off not optional_

 _Out of sight, out of mind, wide beaming opticals._

 _"Perfected poem, powerful punch lines,_

 _Pummeling petty powder puffs in my prime._

 _"Quite quaint quotes keep quiet it's Quantum._

 _Quarrelers ain't got a quarter of what we gotta._

 _"Really raw raps, risin up rapidly_

 _Riding the rushing radioactivity_."

It was at this point that Raph noticed she seemed to use a different tone of voice for each letter of the alphabet. Almost like she were acting out different people saying each stanza, not just one person telling a story. Her voice would change an octave or two and sometime she would even make faces. It was... adorable. And fascinating.

" _Super scientifical sound search sought_

 _Silencing super fire saps that are soft._

 _"Tales ten times talented, too tough._

 _Take that, challengers, get a tune up._

 _"Universal, unique untouched_

 _Unadulterated, the raw uncut._

 _"Verb vice lord victorious valid._

 _Violate vibes that are vain make em vanished_."

Now she was going so fast, Raph couldn't even tell what she was saying, only catching a few snippets here and there. It was, admittedly, one of the coolest things he had ever heard.

Now he wanted it on an iPod.

" _While I'm all well what a wise wordsmith just_

 _Weaving up words, weeded up on my work shift._

 _"Xerox, my X-radiation holes extra large_

 _X-height letters, and xylophone tones._

 _"Yellow back, yak mouth, young ones yaws._

 _Yesterday's lawn yard sell I yawn._

 _"Zig zag zombies, zoomin to the zenith_

 _Zero in zen thoughts, overzealous rhyme ZEALOTS!"_

She ended with a dramatic flare of voice and body, speaking the last word in a deep boom he didn't know her capable of and throwing her arms up like she was summoning a thunderstorm.

"What... was _that_?" Leo asked excitedly.

Tori smiled, but it was a pretty smile she seemed to use when she was trying to be humble; not the dangerously sharp one he had seen earlier.

"Alphabet Aerobics, by Blackalicious," she said.

"I don't even know half of those words! How did you learn it?" Donnie asked.

"Practice. I learn monologues pretty easily in theater, but I needed more of a challenge one day, so I decided to learn that."

"Well it's awesome!" Raph laughed, despite his own loss.

Mikey sighed and Master Splinter noticed his off-put mood.

"What is the matter Michelangelo. You were not impressed by Victoria's performance?"

"No sensei, it's not that."

"Mikey just learned not to snoop around in someone else's private business the hard way," Raph snickered.

Tori sent him a quick glimpse with that dangerous amusement in her eyes. "You _both_ did," she said. "Don't worry, I will be a fair and just master."

Splinter blinked in surprise. "I am afraid I do not understand."

Tori explained the bet to him and, for a moment, was worried that maybe he would disapprove of her tricks, but to her relief, he smiled in agreement with her.

"Yes, it seems they have both learned two valuable lessons today."

Mikey looked up in surprise. "Two?"

Splinter smiled again. "Yes. First you learned not to delve into another's private life when it is not shown to you, and then you learned," he turned away, taking his exit with a smile suspiciously similar to Tori's smirk. "Never think you can outsmart a kunoichi."


	9. I Think His Name is Baxter Stockman (1)

Chapter Nine:

 ** _I am so sorry about the wait! In all honesty, I have up until chapter fifteen written of this story, and have been uploading one chapter a day, but I am in a play (Rock of Ages) at the moment. I've been waking up at 7 in the morning for 12 hour work days of intense choreography, singing, and pretending to be a sexy 80's rock groupie (with is basically me acting the way I did when I found out about the new Harry Potter book coming out July 31 and had an intense fangril freak-out in the middle of Hastings XD ). Thank all of you for your views, reviews, favoriting, and following. It gives me warm a fuzzy feelings #^.^#_**

 ** _AJ92- Yes it will follow the 2012 TV show, BUT later in this book there will be separate, more original, adventures. Plus, there are the original stories between episodes like 'Raph and the Rapper.'_**

Tori was having her first official private training lesson with Master Splinter when it happened.

"Now, before we continue it is crucial that you understand that training to be a kunoichi will take more out of you than physical exhaustion. While-"

"Guys, guys, get in your spot!" Mikey's loud voice called from the living room, effectively distracting both of them. They exchanged an uneasy look.

Anything being conducted by Mikey couldn't be good.

"All right, Mikey, but this is the last time!" Raph said, a little quieter than his younger brother, but still very distracting.

Another exchanged look. Mikey and Raph? Something was definitely going to break, and Tori remembered the fact that her laptop was on the coffee table; right in the danger zone.

"Don't flip me this time, okay?" Donnie warned.

"I ate too much cheese," Leo complained distantly.

All three brothers following the instructions of Michelangelo? They both rushed out to stop the damage before it could not be undone.

There, at the top of a very tall, misshapen, wooden ramp, stood Mikey, grinning devilishly and holding a skateboard. At the bottom of the ramp, Raph, Leo, and Donnie were all crouched, oblivious to the appearance of Tori and their sensei.

"Please tell me they didn't..." Tori muttered.

"And now the kid goes for the world record! He will attempt to jump three mutant turtles!" Mikey crowed, look down proudly at his masterpiece.

"And he did," Tori sighed. At least her laptop wasn't in any danger.

"I can't believe he talked us into this," Raph muttered to Donnie, who nodded adamantly.

"Ya! Booyakasha!" Mikey jumped rolling down the steep ramp. Master Splinter finally chose that moment to intervene. Why he hadn't stepped in sooner, Tori had no idea. Perhaps he had hoped that one of his son's would come to their senses and stop this nonsense. Maybe he thought that Mikey couldn't really be that stupid. Either way he was wrong and finally stepped in to bring order to the chaos.

"What is going on in here!?" he bellowed, startling all four of them.

Leo, Raph, and Donnie all stood up in alarm.

"Sensei!" Leo gasped, horrified. All three of them were standing right in Mikey's path of travel.

"Whoa!" Mikey waved his arms and tried to stop the oncoming collision, but it was too late. All four of them shouted out in surprise before becoming one big turtle pile.

Tori could not help the snicker that escaped her, but then managed to turn it into a cough before Splinter caught on to her.

Splinter went to stand in front of them and as they all shook off the dizziness, they looked up at their intimidating rat father.

"How many times have I told you not to skateboard in the lair?" he growled.

Mikey seemed to be honestly confused.

"None, Sensei," he said honestly.

"I shouldn't have to tell you!" Splinter shouted in exasperation. It really should have been a given that a giant skateboard ramp in the living room of all places was a terrible idea.

Leo stood as he pushed himself out of the pile and took charge.

"You're right, Sensei. We definitely should have known better," a glare sent in Mikey's direction. "And we deserve to be punished." Leo bowed his head respectfully, before peaking up at his master. "Eh, some."

Splinter bent to Leo's level immediately making the eldest son stiffen.

"And what do you think would be a fitting punishment?" he asked sternly, face only inches from Leo's.

Leo blanched and look over his shoulder at his brother for support as they too stood, but they offered him nothing.

"Well, uh, we... we should clean up our mess?" Splinter raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "And then think about what we did," Leo finished, seeming to think that would fix the problem.

Behind him, his brother gave their own support for their leader.

"Yeah."

"Sounds about right."

"We were wrong."

"Wouldn't want to do too much."

"No worries."

Tori face palmed and knew this would not end pretty. And to top it off, she got to deal with an irritated Splinter for 2 hours after all of this was over.

"What about being grounded for a week?" Splinter suggested.

All of their eyes widened at the awful thought and immediately tried to backtrack.

"Oh, I'm not sure that's-"

"I'm cool with the thinking."

"Really, that's not necessary."

"Maybe next time."

They all smiled innocently.

This definitely did not work for Splinter as he again growled in anger.

"You're grounded for a week!"

They all slouched their shoulders and groaned. The ramp then chose that moment to tip over with a thunderous 'BOOM', almost hitting Tori as she retreated back into the hallway with a suspiciously girly squeak.

The guys all winced and rushed to clean it up before their punishment could be worsened tenfold.

This was going to be a loooooooooooong week...

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

After her first private training lesson with Master Splinter, Tori was almost tempted to sleep the rest of the day. Almost.

The guys were already eating lunch when she went into the kitchen. Training, as she had expected, had not been easy, despite it only being her first day. Raph was surprised to say the least that she still wanted to train with him, but she was insistent. Now though, she was starting to regret it.

She fell to the padded floor again and the air rushed out of her lungs. She coughed violently and tried to catch her breath.

"You know, I'm starting to question your teaching methods Raph," she gasped. He smirked down at her and offered her a hand of assistance.

"You're the one who wanted help. I offered to wait for tomorrow."

"I wanted you to teach me," she said irritability. "Not use me as your punching bag Monsieur Macho."

Raph crossed his arms, almost seeming to enjoy her disheveled state. "Well, what do you want me to do instead?" he asked.

Tori rolled her eyes. "You could start by teaching me to block," she suggested.

Suddenly Raph felt a little sheepish.

"Oh. Right. Sure." He cleared his throat and Tori allowed herself a quick victory smile before become serious again. "Right, so the easiest block is going to be a cross block. Like this," he demonstrated and Tori imitated the way he crossed his arms like and 'X' in front of him.

He observed with a critical eye and shook his head. "Almost, but you need your elbow to stick it a little more to protect more of your front. Here."

He reached over and gently pulled her elbows out a bit further and suddenly became very aware of the fact that her skin felt very different from that of his brothers. Much softer with less scars and hardly any flaws. He held on to her arms a little longer than necessary, before blushing slightly and backing away.

"Right, good. That will block most blows to the head and chest if you brace your knees and take the shock not just through your arms, but your whole body. You'll break an arm if you try to just stop the hit with force of your own."

Tori nodded, and if she had noticed his curiosity involving smooth skin of all blasted things, she ignored it- much to his relief.

"So without weapons, a block should be a last resort, especially if your opponent is a lot bigger than you, evasion is usually better if you can manage it."

Tori nodded. "Right. How about we do a bit of that?"

Raph shrugged. "You seemed to be doing fine against Leo earlier."

"Leo follows every Kata to a tee, so he becomes a little predictable. I know not everyone will be like that."

Raph sat back a moment and thought on that

"You know what? Your right. What else did you notice?"

"I noticed that Donnie thinks too much about what he should do rather than just doing it," Tori said. "I noticed that Mikey has a hard time concentrating on a fight with someone for more than 10 Seconds and becomes distracted if it last longer. I noticed that the moment you get angry, you start to take the fight personally and become more sloppy with your actions, using brute strength rather than your training."

Raph scratched the back of his head. "I'm... working on that. So far nothing's working."

Tori shrugged. "Not that I have any right to talk. I'll probably have quite a few flaws to overcome myself."

Raph stared at her.

"You know, I can't get a read on you," he said finally.

Tori tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"Well I just can't figure you out. You act like a mother hen one minute, then you get all up in someone's face if they offend you," he tried to explain. "Obviously you have no problem taking care of yourself and you like to spend a lot of time by yourself reading or something, but I can't figure out what kind of person you are."

Tori smiled kindly. "Well, people are hardly just black and white are they? There are also a million different shades of grey in between."

Raph nodded, thinking about himself and his brothers.

"Yeah," he agreed then smiled. "If I'm going to be grounded for a week I might as well use the time to try and read you like a book."

Tori only laughed at this.

"Then you'll be trying to read me for a looooong time, because no one has been able to yet," she declared.

Raph laughed as well, and went back to teaching blocks and evasion.

'Challenge excepted,' he thought.

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

Raph paced the length of the living room, and Tori could all but see the steam coming from his ears. While training, tutoring, and his one on one time with Tori took the edge off of his stress during the day, now that it was dark outside, the terms of their grounding were really starting to get to him. Mikey was absentmindedly flipping through a comic book and Tori leaned over to Leo.

"How much longer until he blows his top do you think?" she asked him.

"It'll be any second now."

"Gah! This bites!" Raph raged finally. "I can't believe we're stuck down here for a whole week!"

"Uh, correction; _you're_ stuck down here for a whole week," Tori said. "Because you actually decided to listen to Mikey."

Leo shifted uncomfortably beside her. "Yeah... not one of our brightest moments."

Mikey pouted. "Hey, I'm right here..."

Donnie chose that moment to come rushing out of his lab and into the room. "Guys, guys! You wanna see what I made?"

"This is how bored I am," Raph groaned. "Yes, Donnie. I do."

"Ok, ok, ok! Remember the other day I was scrounging in that military junkyard?" he asked.

Mikey, Leo, and Raph all stared at him blankly. "No."

Donnie, who was far too used to this to care, was unperturbed. "Well, I found an incredibly advanced A.I. microchip, made from- Get this!- self-assembled chain-linked copolymers!"

Obviously none of them knew what that was, but Mikey humored him anyway.

"That's my favorite kind of copolymer!" he said.

Tori figured all of Donnie's excitement was due to being crowded in the lair, like Raph's temper rearing its ugly head, or Leo cleaning the kitchen almost obsessively.

"Mine too!" Donnie said in response to Mikey, pretending just for the moment that Mikey actually understood his 'science talk'. "And I used it to make this." He held out a UFO looking device. "The most advanced music player in the world."

Everyone leaned forward in fascination, even Raphael forgetting that he was in a bad mood.

"Whoa..." they all said in synchronized awe.

"So who wants to try it?" Donnie asked.

Mikey's hand shot up. "Ooh! I do! Toss me the tPod."

Donnie faltered momentarily. "The tPod?"

Mikey smirked all-knowingly. "Turtle. Pod. tPod." He shrugged. "I am so good at naming stuff."

"Or you stole the idea from my iPod," Tori pointed out. Mikey ignored her and put the earbuds in his ears under his mask. Leo, Raph, and Tori watched on worriedly.

"You're really gonna plug an advanced piece of military technology directly into Mikey's head?" Raph asked. "What if it melts his brain?"

Donnie brushed it off confidently. "It won't. And even if it did, who'd know the difference?"

Tori frowned and was about to object that maybe it should be tested on something not alive when Mikey screamed and fell to his knees in pain.

Immediately Donnie leapt forward, worried for his only younger brother, and thinking about Raph's melted brain comment. "What!? What's wrong!?"

"It's polka!" He screeched. "Make it stop! Make it stop!" Instantly, Donnie's shoulders slouched and he scowled at his little brother before pushing the skip button of the tPod.

"Thanks," Mikey sighed. He listened to the new song for a couple seconds then bobbed his head and starting dancing to the beat only he could hear. He hummed along, out of tune and completely unaware of his audience. His brothers and Tori just stared at him, unamused and once again bored almost to the point of tears.

Tori checked the time on her open laptop that was sitting on the coffee table (a recent addition to the furniture in the main room) and got to her feet.

"Well, I'm outta here," she said, waving absently at the boys as she headed for the turnstiles.

"Where are you going?" Raph asked, once again feeling irritable and almost trapped.

Tori still didn't turn around.

"Shopping with April," she called over her shoulder. "I seriously need more than what I brought with me to live down here."

Raph too checked the time and raised an eye ridge.

"At 10:30 p.m.?"

"Yep. Later!"

And then she was gone. Raph scowled at the exit for a moment longer before plopping onto the bench/couch. He couldn't really blame her for wanting to leave. If he had the chance, he would do it too.

Mikey finally exited fantasy land and shout at Donnie over his loud music- that only he could hear.

"Hey Donnie, you think we can get that song that Tori was rapping yesterday on here?"

Donnie pulled out one of Mikey's ear buds so he could actually hear his surroundings.

"Sure," he said. Then a little sheepishly he added, "Once I figure out a way to download songs."

Raph did a facepalm and all but growled in frustration.

"That's it. I gotta get out of here," he said leaping back to his feet and starting briskly heading for the exit, hoping that maybe he could catch up to Tori and "escort" her around town with the excuse that he needed to protect her from the Kraang.

"Where are you going?" Leo called, also standing up in alarm. "We're grounded."

"I don't care," Raph groaned. "I gotta do something or I'm gonna go nuts!" He picked up his own discarded skateboard from beside the turnstiles and turned around to face his brothers. "Let's find a skate spot!"

"Skate spot?" Mikey shouted, still forgetting only he could hear the loud music. "I'm totally in!"

"But what's Splinter gonna say?" Leo asked, casting a look over his shoulder. Splinter seemed to know everything; surely he would know about this and come out to stop them.

Raph crossed his arms and stuck out his bottom lip.

"'I don't know what's going on, because they snuck out while I was asleep'," he said, almost perfectly mimicking their sensei.

The oldest turtle crossed his own arms and laughed humorlessly. "Heh. Real mature. But I'm your leader. And as your leader, I say nobody's going."

Donnie and Mikey, each holding their own skateboards, went to stand next to Raph, and Leo felt his heartbeat quicken. He couldn't stop them if they all wanted to go.

"Well as your followers, we're going anyway," Raph said smoothly, knowing already that he had won the argument.

Leo had to admit, finding a fun skate spot sounded way better than sitting around in the lair all evening; but he wasn't about to admit that to Raph.

"Well as your leader, I'm going with you," he said. "To lead you... away from bad... stuff." He stood there awkwardly and knew he wasn't fooling anyone. Fortunately for him, Mikey chose that moment to scream again, falling to his knees in distress and clawing at his ears.

"What's wrong?" Leo gushed rushing forward.

"It's back to polka!" Mikey whined before glaring half heartedly at Donnie. "We've got to get some more tunes on this!"

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

The brothers leapt from rooftop to rooftop, as silent and swift as the shadows they surrounded themselves with. Using their advanced ninja training, they avoided making a single sound and traveled not even alerting other that they were ever there.

Or, most of them anyway.

Mikey was already on his skateboard, using anything and everything as a prop for stunts, and even went as far as to make sound effects for himself. He was to preoccupied with his stunts and music player to even think about stealth.

"Hey, Donnie!" he shouted, breaking the silence. "Thanks for all the new songs!"

Donnie too forgot about absolute silence as he almost stumbled in surprise and curiously looked back as Mikey.

"Wait, what new songs?" He questioned.

Leo gritted his teeth in frustration. "Keep it down, you guys!"

Donnie flipped up to the taller building Mikey was boarding on and landed in a handstand on his younger brother's shoulders to see what Mikey was talking about. Raph slowed down to run beside them.

"What the?" Donnie exclaimed. "It's got thousands of songs and it keeps downloading new ones every second!"

"So?" Raph shrugged. No one was going to arrest 4 giant mutant turtles for pirating a few songs.

"So, I didn't program it to do that." Donnie jumped down to run on the other side of Mikey, and carefully thoughtful look decorating his face. "It's reconfiguring itself somehow." Then a sudden realization. "It's that chip!"

"Whatever it is, it's awesome!" Mikey crowed using a skylight as a ramp and flinging himself into the air.

"Guys!" Leo hissed. "We're ninjas, remember? We move swiftly and- here's the important part- silently!" So busy with lecturing was Leo that he forgot to look where he was going and promptly ran right off the side of a building, falling a good 20 feet and crashing through the roof of a greenhouse.

He screamed, managing to land on his feet on a table, tip flower pots to the ground, and his momentum was so great that he tipped forward, unable to stop himself as he ran right at a swarming, honey coated nest.

"Beehive!" he shouted, wind milling his arms in an attempt to stop himself, but luck was not on his side. He ran headlong into it, pitching forward and falling out a (now) shattered window onto the room's fire escape. He then proceed to fall down the entire flight of stairs until he finally met the ground.

He landed on a pile of garbage bags, arms splayed out as he tried to catch his breath and groaned.

The other three mutant turtles looked down from the rooftop, smiling almost cheerfully.

"That wasn't very silent, Leo," Raph called, trying not to cackle.

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

Now once more traveling in a near silent pack, they came across what looked like a large example of modern architecture sitting in front of a dark business Complex.

Raph crouched down on the edge of the roof and peered down at it and the surrounding railings.

"Check that out," he said, jerking his head towards it.

"Let's grind it," Mikey said enthusiastically.

Donnie's attention was pulled elsewhere and he saw what looked like a dweeb-ish looking young man wearing a homemade metal vaporized suit.

"Who the heck is that guy?" he asked.

Raph eyed him mistrusting. "I don't know. But he needs a beat down."

Leo rolled his eyes at his immediate younger brother's rashness. "Hold on, Raph, we don't know that he's gonna do anything wrong. He could be on his way to..." What? Comic-Con? A birthday part? A geek-out freak-out? "...Church," he finished lamely.

Raph's eyes sparkled in amusement. The fresh air was definitely putting him in a better mood.

"Wearing powered battle armor?" He raised an eyebrow at his older brother. "What kind of church is that?"

"A really awesome one," Mikey chimed in.

"What are you guys doing?" piped up a voice from behind them.

All four of them gave a startled shout and whirled around to see Tori, arms crossed, hip cocked, and eyebrow raised. She looked like a suspicious and disapproving mom if ever Raph had seen one.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, trying to ease the tension and hoping she wouldn't tell Master Splinter. "I thought you were with April."

Tori shrugged casually. "I was. But then I heard what sounded like 4 grounded teenage mutant ninja turtles running around sounding less like ninja and more like a herd of stampeding buffalo."

Leo glared at his brothers. "This is what I meant by stealth guys!"

"Says the one who fell down a flight of stairs," Raph muttered. He glanced at Tori and could have sworn she smirked but when he did a double take, it was gone.

"Stupid half priced piece of junk," muttered the Iron-Man wannabe below them.

Tori nodded her head in his direction. "Who's that?"

"The butt we were just about to kick," Raph informed her nonchalantly.

"Look, it's my call," Leo said. "I decide who gets a beat down." They all looked back down at the man who walked right up to the garage door to the business complex and started trying to break in using a touch blower.

"That guy needs a beat down," Leo finally concluded.

They all jumped down from the rooftop (Tori hitching a ride from Raph so as not to break her much more fragile human bones) and landed in a silent semi circle around the man.

They saw the torch blower sizzle and fade out.

"Are you kidding me?" The man exclaimed angrily. "Come on Stupid shutter!" He started hitting the already damaged merchandise in frustration. Then he started kicking the metal door and tugging at it, trying to open it any way he could.

Tori suddenly felt a little pity for the pathetic man. He was kind of like some of the kids at her school without any friends that she would hang out with on occasion. some of them turned out to be pretty awesome people.

"It's just kind of sad," Donnie whispered, regarding his 'primitive' way of trying to fix the suit.

"Yeah," Mikey whispered. "I don't know if we should pound him or buy him an ice cream cone."

Leo took that moment to make their presence known.

"Halt, villain!" he cried in a deep false bravado voice, and easily taking on a fighting stance, katana drawn.

The man spun around in confusion. "Huh?"

Raph stared at his brother in horror. "'Halt, villain?'" he groaned. "When did we start talking like that?"

Leo's shoulders sagged a little.

"We're heroes," he said meekly. "That that's how heroes talk."

"Only if we're from a 1970's cartoon show," Tori said, to which Raph snickered appreciatively.

The man in the battle power suit seemed to be on the same page as Leo though. He struck a dramatic pose, pointing at them and started his monologuing.

"You will feel the fury of my powered battle-" he stopped suddenly noticing that most of his opponents were not even human. "Holy cow! You guys are turtles!" he exclaimed with begrudgingly awe.

"That's right," Leo said using the deep false voice again. "We're the turtles of justice!" Raph and Tori both flinched. Raph was even holding his head like he was actually in pain.

"Wow. I mean, just wow." he said.

Tori crossed her arms, feeling very aware that she was not a turtle.

"And what am I; chopped liver?" she asked.

Leo looked back at her guiltily.

"Turtles of Justice plus One?" he suggested half heartedly.

The Suit-Man was apparently getting bored already and decided to skip the (probably well rehearsed) monologue and go straight for the fight.

Tori, Raph, Leo, and Donnie all rushed up to meet him head on, but Mikey cried out.

"Wait!" Everyone froze and looked at him. He calmly pulled out his earbuds, wrapped them around the tPod and tucked it safely into his belt. "Okay," he said and everyone jumped back into motion.

The fight was particularly loud, but quick. This man definitely had no experience in fighting technique. Tori didn't even have any weapons and she still far overmatched him. He was slow, weak, and- most importantly- clumsy. He tripped right over a silver garbage can and fell back into a window. The moment the glass shattered, the security system's went off, and Tori cringed as the alarms assaulted her ears.

Raph, who was balanced on top of a dumpster, opened the lid and gestured to the inside. Leo nodded and all four of them lifted the man up in the air. He flailed angrily, and started shouted at them. Tori had the sudden mental image of a beetle stuck on its back.

"No! No! No! Ahh!" he shouted. "You're not the first to ever throw me in the trash, but I swear that you will be the last-"

His speech was cut off by the closing of the dumpster lid.

Tori crossed her arms and frowned unhappily. "Very mature guys, but this is crime stopping- not high school. We should drop him off at a police station, not in a dumpster."

 _'And we make more enemies by treating people that way_ ,' She thought, but she kept that to herself. Even she couldn't see that man ever posing a real threat.

Raph crossed his own arms.

"In case you haven't noticed," he said. "We can't exactly go waltzing into a police station, and neither can you unless you want the child services to come and get you."

Tori still didn't look happy about it but she soon heard the sound of police sirens.

"And speaking of the police," Donnie said.

"Oh, snap!" Mikey laughed. "It's the poe-poe!"

They all started to flee for the rooftop, Tori managing to keep up by leaping up to the bottom rung of the fire escape and climbing upwards. She also took out the security cam and brought it with her. It was old fashioned with a tape on the inside rather than instant recording on a computer. Thank goodness. She hated to think what New York City would do if they knew there were mutant turtles running around in the sewers.

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ

The quickest and quietest way to enter the layer was by swimming in from the ocean and coming up through the clear pool underneath the tire swing. Only problem was, Tori couldn't hold her breath for 6 minutes like the rest of them.

"It's alright," she had said. "I'll just pick up my bags from April and go down through the sewer tunnels. Unlike you, I had permission to go on a late night excursion and won't be in trouble for coming in so late."

Raph had relaxed as he realized this meant she wasn't going to cheat them out and sent her a grateful look. She nodded then went on her way as they went on theirs.

The water was frigid but the four brothers dealt with it and were home All right.

They peeked out into the empty living room before coming out.

"We made it home!" Raph sighed.

"Shh!" Leo hissed. "It's 2:00 A.M."

"And Splinter's still asleep," Mikey said grinning mischievously. "This is epic."

Leo shook his head as the feeling of guilt began to twist his stomach. "It's not epic. It was a really bad idea."

"No, it wasn't," Raph objected flopping back onto the bean bag chair. "We got out there and stomped a sleazeball. So what's the problem?"

"The fact that you guys have training in 5 hours," Tori said, coming in from the tunnel behind them.

Raph's eyes widened.

" ...Ah, shell."


	10. I Think His Name is Baxter Stockman (2)

"Knees higher, Leonardo!" Splinter snapped almost impatiently and Leo dropped from a sloppy handstand onto his head. Mikey passed by doing some lazy back hand springs. "Extend, Michelangelo!" Splinter said, just as angrily. Raph rolled by, completely inside his shell. "Raphael, you call that a Koho Tenkai? Because I do not!" Splinter continued watching their sloppy training before standing up, finally fed up with their performance- or lack thereof. "Ya-me!" He said and his four sons came forward to kneel in a line before him. He regarded them and hummed thoughtfully.

"Is there something you want to tell me?" He asked.

"Something we wanna tell you?" Mikey smirked. "Nope."

"You all seem tired," Splinter pushed, and all of them seemed to sit up a little straighter.

"We're not," Leo insisted.

"Wide awake!" Donnie added.

"Fresh as daisies," Raph added.

Suddenly a monstrous yawn overtook the youngest brother and he fell against Raph, dead asleep.

Splinter frowned unhappily. "So you would not object to a little Randori." Before any of them could react, Splinter pulled out a wooden training katana and attacked. They didn't even know what hit them.

"Well I hope you have learned, turtles, that truth isn't the only thing that hurts," he said to the groaning turtle pile.

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

"Captain Ryan! The rebellion is growing! We have to get off this planet!" Came a weedy little voice from the tv. Leo watched with avid admiration as his role model and hero took charge of the situation by slapping the scrawny lieutenant.

"No!" he shouted.

"But, Captain-"

"I said no!"

Leo sucked in a breath and spoke with Captain Ryan as he gave his "speech of encouragement."

"We may have started this rebellion by accident, but by the rings of Nebulon, we are going to finish it on purpose!" They said together.

All of the ship's crew immediately followed his orders without question.

"Aye, sir!"

Raph looked up from reading his motor madness magazine and rolled his eyes at his older brother's "dorkish" behaviour.

"Seen this enough times there, chief?" he asked.

"Would you shh!" Leo all but whined. "This is the best part!"

As karma would have it, the show was interrupted again, but not by Raph.

"We interrupt this program to bring you breaking news," said a heavily set news reporter with outrageously- obsessively- tamed wavy hair. "We've received shocking footage of an assault on the TCRI office complex in Brooklyn."

The view shifted to a hand held recording from inside a big office building. Everyone within sight of the camera was hiding under a desk or running and screaming in terror- as they very well should be.

There in the center of it all was the very same man they had fought the previous night decked out in a new and very much improved suit of armor.

"At last!" he cried. "I will have my revenge!"

"Who who are you?" asked a random office worker.

"You'll never know," the man said with an "evil" grin. "I'm the thing that haunts your nightmares! I'm the nameless shadow who-"

His tirade was interrupted again by the same office worker.

"Baxter?" The man asked. "Baxter Stockman?"

"No!" He said trying to deny that "the nameless shadow" had a name.

Suddenly the office worker wasn't afraid any more.

"Hey, everybody!" He called, getting to his feet. "It's Baxter Stockman!"

Raph crossed his arms with a little smirk. "I think his name is Baxter Stockman."

Someone behind the view of the camera piped up, "Is this because I fired you?"

Baxter Stockman pouted. "That copy machine was already broken when I-" he stopped when he noticed the video camera and cleared his throat. "I mean I don't know what you're talking about!" He then proceeded to throw desks around the room sending everyone back into a terror.

"How did he upgrade his armor so fast?" Leo asked. The clip paused just in time for all four of the turtles to catch a full view of the battle suit, including a very familiar A.I. pod sitting right in the middle of his chest.

Donnie's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and turned on Mikey."He has the tPod!?" He all but screeched.

Mikey shrunk into himself and smiled feebly. "Oh, um I might of dropped that during the fight..."

That did it.

"You dropped it during the fight!? NICE GOING MIKEY!"

"It's your fault!" Mikey whined, trying one last ditch effort at saving his shell.

"How is it my fault?" Donnie cried in outrage.

Mikey shouted right back, "You know I can't be trusted with nice things!"

If looks could kill, Mikey would have been dead ten times over. Mikey, finally having picked up that he was fighting a losing battle, slunk away like a kicked puppy.

"So the A.I. chip is upgrading his armor the same way it upgraded the tPod?" Leo confirmed.

Donnie nodded. "And if it keeps going, there's no telling how powerful he'll get."

"This has gone way too far," Leo said. "We have to tell Splinter about this."

Raph's eyes widened marginally. "What?" He exclaimed "Tell Sensei that we turned some nutjob into a super villain? Do you know what he'll do to us for that? I mean, he pounded us into the ground just for being sleepy!" He pounded his fist for emphasis and they all shivered.

Donnie then took control of the situation.

"Look, we beat Stockman once, we can beat him again," he said. "We track him down, grab the tPod, and get back here before Splinter knows anything."

Mikey, who was sitting upside down in a beanbag chair reading a comic book, chose that moment to pipe up.

"If my opinion counts for anything, Donnie's right."

"Hey, thanks, Mikey." Donnie said sarcastically. "But it doesn't."

"Didn't think so."

It finally occurred to Raph that not the whole gang was there to hear the game plan.

"So who's going to tell Tori that we have to sneak out again to fix a problem that we caused?" He asked. Leo, Donnie, and Mikey all gave him a blank 'Duh' look, and he realized it was going to have to be him.

"Aw shell..."

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

It had not been easy convincing Tori to come along. She had been very insistent on the fact that they had already made a big enough mess and needed to tell Splinter before it got worse. The only way Raph got her to comply to their plan was by telling her that Leo was going along with it too.

Somehow this irritated him. How she only agreed to come when she heard that Fearless Leader was in on the plan. But here she was, crawling along behind him on the support beams of an abandoned warehouse Donnie had tracked the tPod to. She was as silent as a panther, and he had a hard time believing that she had only been training with Splinter for a few days now.

Below them, Baxter sat on his "Thrown", trying to come up with a not-as-pathetic super villain name.

"I'm not Baxter Stockman. I am the Baxman!" He proclaimed, then shook his head. "No, no, I am I am the Suitinator! Aw, that's terrible! Captain Punch-you-hard! Why is this so difficult?" He whimpered.

"How about 'The Bax Machine'?" Tori whispered.

"I kinda liked "the Suitinator." Mikey admitted.

Somehow Baxter didn't hear them, but he did hear Leo's shushing. Raph almost snickered. Fearless Leader indeed.

"You guys again?" Stockman said, squinting up at them. Knowing their cover was blown wide open, the all jumped down from the ceiling. Tori stumbled a little then caught herself.

"All right, Stockman," Leo said. "Nobody wants to hurt you."

Raph's shoulder sagged. "We don't? Did I miss a meeting?" Tori gave him a wry smile and he felt a small flutter in his stomach at the success, but Leo ignored him.

"We just want the tPod."

"Give up my source of power?" Stockman laughed. "Why? So you can laugh at me again? Throw me in a dumpster?"

Tori threw her arms in the air in mock exaggeration. "See! What did I tell you? Throw a guy in a dumpster and karma will come to get you!"

Raph growled happily at the challenge and spun his sai around his knuckles. "I don't know, it sounds good to me." And with that, he charged forward, sai first.

Stockman swatted him away like a fly and he went smacking into a wall and falling to the ground, covered in heavy debris. Tori, who knew she was the one outmatched here, didn't give Stockman the chance to kick her butt. Instead she ran to Raph's aid, which he gladly accepted.

Leo, Mikey, and Donnie attacked as one but all Stockman had to do was use _arm extensions_ to push Mikey and Donnie into opposite walls. Tori, who had just finished dragging Raph out of the rubble, signed and went to help them when Leo went running by with a robot stuck to his face, screaming at the top of his lungs and running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

"Get it off!" He screamed. "Get it off!" Tori tried to help but Leo kept running away from her.

"Stop moving!" She shouted. The robot then turned its eerie red gaze on her and started shooting at her. She squeaked and ran for cover behind a pile of debris and the robot shot at Raph and Donnie as well, zapping their weapons right out of their hands with stunning accuracy.

"Lasers!" Donnie warned unnecessary. "Run!"

Leo, who was still screaming and could not see where he was going, accidentally started chasing them.

Across the room, Mikey finally dug his way out of his own scrap pile.

"Hey Stockman!" He shouted, before trying to attack him with his kusarigama. He had somehow successfully wrapped the chain around the giant robot, but did not have enough strength to pull the thing to its knees. Instead, Stockman spun him around in dizzying circles. To Mikey's credit, he did not let go of the weapon.

Back on the other side of the warehouse, Raph and Donnie jumped behind the same junk pile that Tori was taking refuge by.

"Incoming!" Donnie three of them huddled there for a moment and Raph growled in frustration.

"What now, genius?" He asked. Donnie and Tori looked around for a makeshift weapon and both their eyes fell on an old mirror and the same time. They, looked at each other, nodded in silent agreement, and jumped for the mirror. They held it up just in time to deflect a laser right back at the robot. It split right down the middle revealing Leo's face.

He righted his mask and breathed a thanks.

Their attention was drawn back to Stockman who was using a screaming Mikey as his own nunchucks. Leo, Donnie, and Raph, being the protective older brothers they were, growled and snatch their weapons back up attacking as one. Tori, who had no weapon but still felt the need to protect the youngest turtle, found a metal pipe off to the side and attacked with that.

Baxter Stockman used Mikey to wipe out Raph and Leo took the opportunity to finally cut the chain of the kusarigama. Donnie squeezed the handle of his bow staff and a blade came out the other end. He tried to jab at his adversary, but Stockman crushed it with his fist. Tori attacked from behind, swinging the pipe with all her might. She did absolutely no damage to Stockman's suit, but effectively broke the pipe.

Stockman grinned evilly at her before grabbing her and throwing her at Donnie. The two landed in a tangled heap next to Raph and Mikey, but they quickly jumped to their feet.

All five of them attacked at once, but it was still not enough. Far from it actually. With one mighty punch, he took them all out, laughing all the while. Then, to make things even worse, he picked them all up as if they were rag dolls, kicked down a wall, and threw them into a dumpster, much like they had done to him just the night before.

"Ha-ha! Oh, yeah! Foolish turtles! Did you really think you could defeat me?" He gloated.

"Well, yeah," Mikey answered honestly.

"All my life, people have laughed at me," Stockman said. "The other kids in school, my co-workers, the woman who fixes the copy machine! How was I supposed to know you don't pour toner in the top?"

"You poor, poor man," Tori said flatly, picking a banana peal off of her head. He ignored her and continued as if he hadn't heard her.

"But when they behold the power of this suit, they won't be laughing anymore! They'll tremble in terro-AHHHHHHHHH" His monologue was interrupted as he started to scream in pain and the whole suit began to glow red.

"What's happening?" Leo gasped.

"Stockman and the tPod," Donnie said in awe and horror. "They're merging. They're becoming one single entity." And they were. The suit grew even larger and even more dangerous. It was almost as if he was no longer human; almost completely machine.

"The Stockmanpod," Mikey finished.

Tori stared at the already more terrifying sight above her. "Well this is just great."

? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ? ﾟﾐﾢ?

Having barely escaped the dumpster, all five of them were racing down the street. Raph had thought Tori was going to slow them down and suggested she just hide, but as it turns out, she was actually the fastest one among them.

"The Stockmanpod's right on top of us!" Mikey screamed.

Raph growled and if he wasn't busy running for his life, he would have smacked him.

"Stop calling him that!" He snapped. "That's a stupid name!"

"Split up!" Leo called. "He can't follow us all!"

"No way!" Mikey shouted hysterically. "He's gonna follow me!"

Leo rolled his eyes. "Why would he follow you?"

"They always follow me!"

"Stop being paranoid and just do it!" Leo snapped. Mikey still shook his head adamantly.

"No way dude, not gonna happen!"

"Mikey," Tori shouted, slowing to run beside him. "I command you to follow Leo's orders."

Mikey groaned as he remembered the terms of their agreement (and his slavery), but he finally nodded in consent.

One by one they veered off onto different side roads until only Mikey was left.

"Aah! I told you he was gonna follow me!" He screamed to no one in particular. Tori felt a little guilty for putting him in that unfortunate situation, but if Leo was supposed to be the leader, the whole team needed to follow his lead without question. If they didn't, they could not perform like the well oiled machine she knew they could be.

She was the first to make it to the usual manhole cover and looked around to see Raph jogging down the alley towards her.

"Is everyone else on their way?" She asked. He nodded wordlessly and leaned up against the brick wall to wait.

"Do you think we should find Mikey to make sure he was able to ditch the tin can?"

Raph shrugged. "He can run plenty fast. He's had plenty of practice running from me. He'll be fine."

Tori nodded and they fell into silence. Awkward silence. Silence that Raph did not feel like waiting in.

"How are you so fast?" He asked her and she grinned at him.

"I'm a track runner. It's what I do."

He blinked and wracked his brain trying to figure out what kind of track she meant.

"Whats track?" He asked finally.

She looked at him in horrified shock, then remembered that track isn't as popular in New York as it was in Montana and that there was no way he had ever seen a track meet before.

"Track is a sport I played at my High School in Montana," she explained. "Basically it is one big team everyone doing different events. Some people do events to prove how strong they are by throwing discus, javelin, or shot put. Others jumps really far in long jump and triple jump or as high as they can in high jump. I'm in the running events." She smiled proudly as she thought back on all of her successful track meets. "You can choose to race other people in short all out sprints or in long distances. I always did the 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash, 400 meter dash, and hurdles which is like running 100 meters but also jumping over obstacles. Sometimes, if I felt like it, I would also so the 800 meter run or the mile run.

"If you get 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th place in your event, then you earn points for your school. Then, at the end of the track meet, they add up all the points to see which school wins."

Raph was honestly impressed. She quite obviously had speed, endurance, and agility to pull all of that off.

"It sounds complicated," he said. Tori smiled and shook her head.

"It's not really," she said. "It's actually pretty straight forward. I'm just bad at explaining things."

Leo and Donnie then chose that moment to jump down from opposite rooftops and Raph decided not to ask more about the subject of track.

"Have either of you guys seen Mikey yet?" Leo asked.

"Here..." painted Mikey from down the alley. Leo gave him a quick glance to make sure he was okay and nodded curtly.

"Okay, let's get back to the lair. Sensei might notice if all of us are gone... again."

Thankfully, everyone was to exhausted to complain and instead they nodded and slipped into the sewers.

·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~ ·~·~·~·~·~·~·

Sneaking back into the lair was easier said than done. All the lights had been turned off and it was impossible to make it through the complete darkness without running into something- or each other.

"Shh, guys, quiet!" Tori hissed.

Leo jabbed an elbow into Raph. "You're gonna wake him up!"

"I'm not making noise!" Raph complained a little too loudly.

Donnie elbowed him next. "Shh!"

"Don't tell me to be quiet!"

"SHH!"

Suddenly they were thrown from the darkness as the lights flickered to life, and there stood Master Splinter.

"Sensei!" Leo squeaked.

"And where have you been?" The wise rat asked.

"Nowhere?" Raph said pathetically.

"How did you get so hurt?"

Leo's eyes widened as he finally realized how beat up they really looked. "Oh! That! Um, well..." He looked to Tori and his brothers for help, but they all had the same deer in the headlights look that he had. "Well we were um..."

"Hit..." Raph offered.

Donnie struggled to track his brain. "By a..."

Tori but the inside of her cheek. "Big..."

They all looked to Mikey who panicked and said. "Bus?"

Donnie did a face palm at the disbelieving face other their sensei and glared accusingly at the youngest turtle. "Hit by a big bus?" He hissed.

"Well, what was I supposed to say?" Mikey said defensively. "Meteor? Cow? Flying building?"

"Enough!" Splinter barked, getting their attention again. Then more softly he said, "Tell me what happened."

·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·

"...and then I threw hot cheese in his face and ran away," Mikey said, finishing up retelling his own encounter with Stockman after they had split up.

"Very resourceful, Michelangelo," Master Splinter praised and Mikey nodded respectfully. "But I'm still highly disappointed in you all," Splinter continued more sternly. "The first rule of being a ninja is 'do no harm.' Unless you mean to do harm. Then do lots of harm!"

They all bowed their head in shame, and Tori mentally added that to the thus far short list of rules she had compiled about ninjutsu.

"You're right, Sensei," Leo sighed. "I guess we did make a mess of things."

"So what do you think would be a fitting punishment?" Splinter asked.

Leo thought about his answer carefully then looked up at his sensei. "We need to clean up our mess."

"Yes." He agreed. "You must stop this... Stockmanpod."

Raph winced at the name, but said nothing, also choosing to ignore the little smirks Mikey and Tori had sent him.

Donnie flashed back to the last time they had met up with Stockman and felt a small surge of panic.

"But, Sensei, that guy's already kicked our shells," he said. "And now he's even more powerful. How are we supposed to stop him?"

"I know!" Raph growled. "I'll hit him really hard!"

Tori rolled her eyes. "Yeah?" She scoffed. "And how well did that work for you last time?"

"Tori is correct," Master Splinter said, and Raph's shoulders dipped in disappointment. "Brute force is not the answer. You will need to rely on your ninja training."

Mikey tilted his head in confusion and raised his hand. "Excuse me, Sensei, but ninjas never had to go up against guys in armor."

A look of irritation crossed the elder ninja's features and Tori glanced at the rice paper mural of ninjas fighting a samurai wearing shining armor that she had been examining just that morning. "Uh, Mikey..." She whispered, pointing it out to him.

"Oh..." He said sheepishly. "I mean... ninjas always had to go up against guys in armor." He laughed nervously and Raph shook his head in amusement.

"Nice save," he said.

Leo scrutinized the painting with interest as if it hadn't been there for his entire life. "Sensei, what was their secret?" he asked.

"They understood that you do not fight the armor," he said wisely. "You fight the man inside."

A flare of inspiration flickered to life within all of them and they exchanged knowing looks until-

"Why are we all looking at each other?" Mikey asked. Tori snorted very unlady like and Raph did a facepalm.

·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·

The next evening, Raph, Donnie, Leo and Tori found themselves waiting on one of their commonly visited rooftops, looking out in the city.

"Are you sure this is gonna work? " Donnie asked Leo uncertainty.

Leo gave him a confident nod. "Like Sensei said. Don't fight the armor. Fight the guy inside. And one thing we know about bad guys, they love chasing Mikey."

Raph smirked and brought his attention back to the city. "How did you get him to agree with it?" He asked off handedly.

"I didn't," Leo smirked. "Tori ordered him to."

She smiled somewhat mischievously. "Guilty as charged."

Then, from only a block away, they heard Mikey's tell-tale screech of surprise and they all stood at attention. Mikey was running at them, full speed, eyes wide in horror.

"Guys!" He shouted. "Stockmanpod's got missiles!"

Just on cue, a series of missiles came into view and all five of them leapt for cover. The missiles exploded upon impact with a water tower and from the smoke, the Stockmanpod emerged. He was laughing, already well aware that he had the upper hand in the battle. He looked around for the turtles and their friend and saw...

No one.

From behind him, a kusarigama chain shot from the darkness and wrapped itself around him. The same happened on either side of him and them from right in front of him. All five of the young hero's were holding on, determined to keep hold on their chains. Stockman growled and pulled against them, and the chains groaned in strained protest.

"Hah!" Mikey laughed. "Now who's trembling in terro-AHHHH!" The thick chains of the kusarigama were not enough to hold the Stockmanpod, and they all snapped like flimsy rubber bands. Then, of course, his next move was to grab Mikey by the face and throw him into a building.

"Mikey!" Tori shouted in worry, but couldn't run to him like she wanted to, as she happened to be next on his revenge list. She squeaked in, not quite pain but definitely surprise, as the Stockmanpod picked her up in one of his large metal claws.

She kicked her legs in protest and wiggled to try and free her arms. "Let go you over grown tin can!" She screeched. Raph, now noticeably more angry, growled and snatched out his trusty sai.

"That's it. You're going down!" He said, the remaining three ninja turtles ran right at Stockman, screaming their own battle cries. Stockman looked over his shoulder at them and smiled at the challenge, also charging right at them. Tori, who was still wiggling to get free and shouting a very colorful array of curse words, was finally thrown at Raph, who stopped in the middle of his charge to catch her.

She patted his chest thankful and jumped down from his arms.

"Thanks Raphie! That was like a crazy trust exercise on steroids." She turned and ran back into battle to help Leo and Donnie who were both struggling to hold their own. Raph stared after her for a moment in confusion before also joining the fray.

Donnie was the first to strike, balancing on the end of his bo staff to kick hard at the tough metal suit. When he didn't so much as leave a dent, he retreated a few feet to avoid being swatted by Stockman and his place was taken by Leo. The blue masked terrapin sliced away at the underbelly of the bot looking for weak spots on the armor and Raph used his brother's distraction to come on top of the robot and started hacking away at it from above.

His actions did not go unnoticed though as Stockman roughly grabbed him and threw him at the same building Mikey had disappeared into some time ago.

"Raph!" Leo shouted, and Stockman used the new distraction to his advantage, grabbing the ill prepared Leo and Donnie and throwing them off the buildings edge. Before long though, Raph had leaned over the edge and clutched into both of their wrists before it was to late.

"Gotcha!" He smirked triumphantly.

While all of her teammates were otherwise distracted, Tori took her chance to leap into the Stockmampod's back (which was by far the highest she had ever jumped- ever) and started pulling out random wires that had been exposed earlier in the fight. Her efforts seemed to short out his missiles and lasers, but she did not go unnoticed for long as she to was thrown off and back onto the ground next to Raph, Leo, and Donnie. Stockman loomed over them, no longer smiling, and out for blood.

"Any last words?" He asked.

"Just one," Leo said calmly. "Bees."

Baxter Stockman blinked in confusion. "Bees?"

Just then, Mikey, who had been missing for several minutes, came zipping down the power line, holding a beehive with many an angry bee.

"Beeees!" He shouted before throwing the hive right at Stockman's face. The bees were quick to fill in any extra space, all pushing to sting the threat to their nest. As Stockman screamed and waved his hands around, trying in vain to protect himself, the red techno belly of the beast extended and the little device responsible for all of this was revealed.

"There's the tPod!" Tori called to Leo, who happened to be the closest. He nodded and with a new fervor, all of them raced forward, striking with their last ounce of energy and forcing the Stockmanpod off the roof where he lay helplessly.

Leo looked coldly down at the scrawny man, one of his katana pointed at his face before he stabbed the iPod and the A.I. powered battle suit powered down.

Baxter slowly crawled out and looked up at them formidable group of five. "So we'll call it a tie?" He asked weakly.

Leo smirked. "Wanna call it a tie, Raph?"

The said turtle cracked his knuckles and grinned down at the squirming man. "Not yet."

All five of them worked together to pick him up and carry the screaming man to the nearest dumpster. "No! No! Nooo!" His cries were heard by no one though, and his heart beat furiously as Raph looked down on him from above.

"Now it's a tie," he said finally and slammed the lid shut.

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They were all walking back home, laughing and congratulating each other on the successful mission when Raph noticed that Tori was falling behind. He remembered how she had been thrown around quite a bit that night and didn't have a shell to protect her like the rest of them and was worried that maybe she was more hurt than she was letting on. Looking back at her though, she was not hobbling after them in barely suppressed pain, she was walking slowly, looking around at all the nearest rooftops and peering into every shadow.

"Hey, are you alright?" He asked. She jumped slightly at the distraction, all of his brothers stopped and looked back at them.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine." She smiled unconvincing and all of his brothers shared a look of disbelief.

"Are you sure?" Leo pressed. "You didn't get hurt did you?"

She shooter head. "No, I'm fine. My ribs have already healed, but I can't help but feel that... It feels like someone is watching us."

She watched their reactions carefully. Donnie looked thoughtful, Mikey was oblivious, and Leo looked sceptical. Raph was the only one who really looked worried.

"Do you think maybe Baxter Stockman wasn't alone?" Leo asked hesitantly.

Tori bit her lip before shaking her and giving them a weary smile.

"Nah. I'm probably just being paranoid. The adrenaline must be getting to me." They all shrugged and continued on their way, slipping into the safety of the sewers.

Tori cast on more weary glance around at her surroundings before dropping down behind them, and pulling the sewer cap closed.

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"Kraang, the one that is known as the human who has survived the explosion that is known as the explosion done by Kraang is getting stronger."

"Kraang is aware of this. Kraang is also aware that the one that is known as the human who has survived the explosion that is known as the explosion done by Kraang is called Victoria Queen."

"The one that is known as Victoria Queen must be taken from the ones that are know as the turtles and experimented on."

"Kraang is again in agreement with Kraang. The one that is known as Victoria Queen will be very useful in the experimentation that is know as the experimentation that is done by Kraang for Kraang."

"Kraang will soon take the one that is know as Victoria Queen from the ones that are know as the turtles."

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Back in the lair, Tori was feeling much more like herself. Especially now that she was in the safety of the dojo with everyone else.

"You all showed wisdom and great skill in defeating the Stockmanpod. I am proud of you all," Master Splinter concluded. Her heart swelled with pride and she couldn't wait to go on patrol again. The life of adventure definitely suited her well.

"Does this mean we're not grounded anymore?" Leo asked hopefully. Splinter rearguard each of them carefully. They had all obviously learned their lesson and had done well in dealing with their new found foe.

"Yes," he said gracefully and all five of his pupils cheered. "But first, Randori!" He pulled out the wooden katana again and as Tori eyed it curiously, the turtles ran for their lives.


	11. Shurikan Sunrise

Tori slowly opened her eyes and slowly looked around at all the posters on the walls before her eyes lighted on Raph, still sprawled out on his bed. She had to hurry if she was going to sneak out again, but then her eyes were inexplicably drawn to the drum set sitting in the corner right at the foot of his bed.

She stared hard at it for a moment. She had always been curious about it, and wanted to ask Raph about it, but it just never seemed to be the right time to ask. What would she say anyway? 'Hey, you know that drum set I see every night when I sneak in to sleep in your hammock? What brand of make is it?'

She snuck another peek at the ninja turtle less than 5 feet away and bit her lip before slowly creeping out of the hammock. She set her pillow, blanket, and her little brother's teddy bear on the floor next to the door then started inspecting the drum set.

It was in very good condition considering the fact that it had to have come from a garbage pile somewhere. It shone with the care that only a drum with a very caring owner could have.

"Master Splinter found that for me and gave it to me for my 7th mutation day." Tori jumped and looked over to see Raph sitting up in his bed. His bleary eyes were blinking away the last traces of sleep and he didn't have a mask on- neither the red one or the emotionless I-don't-give-a-sheep's-butt-what-people-think-of-me one. "Leo helped me fix it up and Donnie looked up some drum care techniques on the internet for me. Mikey found a bunch of "Cool" stickers to cover it with."

Tori nodded and went back to inspecting it, hoping this unexpected easy-going personality would stick to him just a little bit longer and that things wouldn't turn too awkward.

Eventually she stood up and awkwardly wiped imaginary dust off her hands on her pajama pants, trying to avoid looking at him. If he noticed, he didn't say anything instead opting to nod at her stuff still sitting on the floor.

"You can leave that stuff in here if you like," he offered. "You'll probably just be dragging it back in here tonight anyway."

Tori smiled a little guilty, shuffling her feet a bit and tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear- a nervous habit of hers. She stared hard at the ground as if it had suddenly become the most fascinating thing in the world.

"You don't have to let me stay in here," she murmured. "I understand if it's getting a little old. I need to learn to sleep by myself again anyway."

"Nah, you're alright," Tori looked back up at him in surprise. "I don't mind you coming in here. But I just need to know... why do you come here every night?"

Tori sighed and sat next to him at the foot of his bed.

"I can't sleep when I'm alone. Not since..." she flinched as the scream of her dear cousin Cass echoed in her ears. "Not since my life turned upside down. Not since my family..."

She lost the ability to speak just then, but she got the message across. Raph nodded in understanding.

"Every princess has a Dragon they have to face," he said, the usual snark coming gave him a warning glare, but it didn't last long before giving way to a smile.

"As true as that may be, if you keep calling me princess I'm going to use every pressure point that I know on you in training."

They both laughed easily and Tori wished they could always be this laid back around each other. She liked this side of Raph. She never would have pegged him as a morning person, but here they were. Their laughter dwindled off slowly and they just stared at each other; milk chocolate brown meeting acid green.

"So where do you disappear to every morning?" Raph asked.

Tori smiled and stood.

"Do you want to come and see?"

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They made it to the surface with only minutes to spare.

"Uh, what are we doing out here exactly?" Raph asked.

"Hold your horses; we're almost there," Tori said, before jumping up to reach the lowest rung of the nearest fire escape. Raph stared up at her and shrugged before following her all the way to the roof. She made it to the top then turned back towards the east, and sat down on the edge of the roof. Raph crouched next to her and then she pointed at the horizon without a word.

He looked in that direction just in time to see the first rays of sunshine peak out from behind the distant skyscrapers. Different shades of bright orange, fluorescent pink, and faint yellow crept across the sky. The sight was nothing like he had ever seen before. He had grown up underground the first 15 years of his life and he had only recently seen the sky, and that was always at night with the sky too smoggy to see a single star.

Sure, he had seen many pictures of sunsets, but none of them had done this justice. Tori had to say, this was the prettiest sunrise she had seen since coming to New York.

"Alright, I'll admit it," Raph said. "This is pretty awesome. Definitely worth sneaking out early in the morning for."

Tori snuck him a glance and marvelled at the was the sunrise reflected in those amazing green eyes.

Then she felt stupid for ever thinking that way about Raph of all people. The most hot-headed, temperamental, judgemental, sarcastic, relatable, protective, funny...

Okay enough if this.

"We should probably get going," She said. "Splinter and Leo will be waking up soon and the last thing I need is getting in trouble for letting a human catch sight if you."

Raph nodded and they both retreated into the safety of the sewers.

The dark, sunless, sewers...

Raph would have to sneak up during the day with Tori more often.

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"So, I see that you and Raphael have been getting along very well as of late," Master Splinter said later that afternoon.

Tori's eyes widened at his remark and was quick to jump to her own defense.

"It's not like that!" She insisted. "Yeah, we get along better now, and he's a really good friend but we don't get along like THAT." She snuck a glance at Splinter and he was watching her in amusement.

"I did not suggest that you and my son had any romantic notions, but the fact that you jumped to that conclusion is most curious."

'Oops...' Tori thought, and she felt her cheeks growing ever warmer. Goodness gracious, she had only been there for about a week and a half, and the thought that she might have a crush on one of the turtles was almost irritating; out of character at the very least. She had never been interested in guys before, but she knew it was bound to happen eventually and now...

"Could you please show me that kata again?" She asked rather than continuing the conversation. Master Splinter chuckled but did not push the situation, and performed the kata for her once more. She watched carefully and then copied his actions perfectly.

"Very good," Master Splinter praised. "You are a very quick learner, and Leonardo has informed me that you have done well in helping with their last mission. Tell me, how do YOU think it went?"

Tori considered the question for a moment. "Well, it certainly wasn't easy, and it was kind of frustrating when I was unable to help in certain parts of the mission, and at times I wished I had a weapon because I very well couldn't kick the Stockmanpod, but... I did enjoy myself for the most part. It was like nothing I've ever done before."

Splinter nodded and seemed satisfied with her answer.

"With time, it will become easier. When you are ready for a weapon, we fill find you your right match. For now, how about I show you how to use the shuriken?"

My spirits soared at the thought of finally being able to use the deadly little throwing stars. Instead of shouting "Alright!" and fist pumping, she bowed respectfully and said, "Hai, sensei."

Leo was right, she had been worrying about training for all the wrong reasons.

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"You need to stick your elbow out more, and keep the movement fluid. It's all in the wrist." Tori nodded again, concentrating on the target with all her might. Master Splinter had worked with her on her aim for the rest of their lesson and had ended practice with the instruction to practice- a lot.

Throwing the shuriken was a lot harder than it looked. Much harder than throwing a frisbee or skipping rocks. For one thing, she had to make sure not to cut herself with it. For another, she needed to be able to throw it hard, but still in full controls of its actions. So, practice she did throughout her entire tutoring lesson with Raph.

She threw the shuriken again and it hit far to the right of the target, not even sticking into the wood, instead clattering to the ground. She groaned, dispirited at the dozens of failed attempts, but still determined to get it just right.

"How did you and your brothers get so good at this?" She asked Raph who, contrary to what she believed he would do, was not laughing at her.

He shrugged and crossed his arms. "We all have our own ways of learning. Leo practiced until his arm almost fell off and kept practicing. Donnie apparently does a whole bunch of crazy math calculations, and Mikey... as crazy as if sounds, he's just naturally good at it, even if he doesn't use them very often."

Tori nodded. "And you?" She asked. He hesitated as if he wasn't sure if that was really a piece of information that he wanted to share.

"I imagine that my target is someone I hate. Someone who I think really does need a shuriken in their back." He avoided eye contact as she stared at him with an unreadable expression. "You were right about my fighting style. My anger is... something else. I think I can use it to my advantage all the time and sometimes it works... and sometimes it doesn't. That's how I fight."

Tori nodded and went back to examining the target. Raph snuck a glance at her, and she wasn't frowning in disapproval like Master Splinter or Leo. Instead she looked thoughtful.

"What do the Kraang look like?" She asked. He was surprised by her question, but complied none the less.

"Well, some of them look like the exact same ordinary man with a gaunt face, black hair, and a tux. The ones not disguised to look somewhat normal are like these tall-ish shiny silver robots, sometimes covered in blue membrane, with what looks like big, pink, brains with tentacles in their stomachs. You'd definitely know one when you saw it."

Tori nodded again before drawing back her arm, elbow out like Raph had instructed, a new throwing star in hand. She squinted at the target, then, lighting quick, threw the shuriken. It hit dead center with deadly accuracy. Raph raised an eye ridge, and glanced at her in surprise. She didn't look at him.

"You could say I've got a bit of a grudge against them," she said. She closed her eyes momentarily, took a deep breath in through her nose, let it out slowly through her mouth, and opened her eyes again. She turned and gave him a small smile.

"You hungry? I'm cooking."

And without waiting for a response, she disappeared out the dojo's sliding doors. Raph glanced once more at the shuriken embedded deep in the wood target and grinned wryly. Looks like he wasn't the only one with a temper.

Chapter Twelve:

"Raph?" Leo asked, peeking his head into his brothers room. "Can we talk for a minute?" It was an unspoken rule throughout the whole lair that Raph as not to be disturbed if he was hiding in his room, but it was a chance that Leo was just going to have to take.

Raph looked up from where he was feeding Spike.

"Uh, sure..." He set down the package of lettuce and turned his full attention to Leo.

The oldest brother entered the room, and closed the door behind him with a click. Then he stood there awkwardly for several moments, trying to find a way to bring up the topic without it coming off the wrong way.

"I wanted to talk to you about Tori..." Raph instinctively tensed, but not enough for Leo to notice. There was any number of topics about Tori that Leo could bring up, and not all of them were ones he was willing to talk about.

"Donnie said the Kraang have been acting up a bit lately, buying warehouses and stocking it with stolen goods and kidnapping scientists... I know the Kraang is a touchy subject for Tori and I was wondering if you thought it would do her good to conquer some fears, or if it would open up some fresh wounds." Raph almost released a sigh of relief. This conversation he could deal with- even if it was kind of touchy-feely.

"Why didn't you bring this to Master Splinter?" Raph asked.

"I did. He told me that you know her better than he does." The surprise on Raph's face was very evident that time, but he didn't question why.

He thought back to earlier when she had hit a bullseye just by picturing the Kraang, and then pictured her sitting alone at night, waiting for them to come back to give her an update on her family's murders.

"Honestly, I think she'd be better off coming with us on missions against the Kraang. If I was the only one to survive an explosion done by them, I'd want to get back at them."

"You would also probably lose your head and make stupid mistakes," Leo pointed out.

"That's why we would be there with her. We can stop her from making stupid decisions. That's what we have you around for isn't it?"

Leo smirked and nodded. "Alright then. You better start getting ready then. It'll be dark soon." Raph nodded and went back to feeding his pet turtle as Leo left to go get ready himself.

"Well Spike, I guess things are about to get interesting."

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"So what are we doing here again?" Tori asked. When the guys had said they were going to sneak into some Kraang facilities, she had thought they would be sneaking into a super secret underwater spaceship, or a very well hidden science lab with out of this world security systems. Imagine how disappointed she was when she found out they were only poking around in some warehouses.

"The Kraang have been buying hundreds of warehouses throughout New York, and stocking them with various unknown supplies," Leo explained. "It's also possible that they might be keeping some of the scientists they kidnapped, like April's dad, prisoner in one of these warehouses. We're just here to figure out what it is that their stocking up on and what they're planning so that we know how to stop them."

Tori nodded and continued following behind Donnie as all five of them walked one after the other on a thin support beam in the first warehouse of the night. So far this was one pretty void of anything even slightly interesting. There was a stack of empty cardboard boxes in one corner, a few discarded and empty mutagen canisters, and enough dust to fill a sandbox.

"I don't think we're going to find anything in this one Leo," Donnie said. "There aren't even any radio waves coming from in here."

And so they moved onto the next one. And the next one, and a few more after that.

"Are we sure that the Kraang are supposed to be here?" Tori asked. "Because unless they can turn invisible, I haven't seen any."

"Invisible Kraang?" Mikey asked, eyes widening. "Dudes, that would be the last thing we need! They could, like, sneak into the lair and steal all our pizza!" Raph smacked him upside the head, causing the youngest turtle to pitch forward into Leo who then lost his balance and fell into Tori.

She let out a surprised squawk, and before she could catch her balance, she fell off the side of the rafter and landed hard on the ground with a loud _'THUD'_.

"Tori!" All four of the brothers leapt lightly down from the rafters and crowded around her.

"Shell, are you alright?" Raph asked. They all reached to help her back to her feet, but she shook her head quickly.

"Don't touch me. Wait until my ribs and leg heal." They all stopped and blinked in surprise. Raph looked down at her leg and was horrified to see the piercing shape of a broken bone sticking out of the side of her leg. But instead of swelling like a balloon, the leg was slowly straightening itself out and the penetrating bone retreated back inside of her leg. The muscles jumped and twitched until everything finally stopped moving.

"Fascinating," Donnie breathed. "If anyone else had that kind of injury, they'd never walk right again. You healed in 46 Seconds!"

"That was either the coolest or grossest thing I've ever seen," Mikey said honestly, earning an elbow to the ribs from Leo and Raph.

Tori laughed shakily and slowly pushed herself to her feet. She looked paler than usual, and a little tired - side effects of super healing most likely- but she looked completely fine.

"So," she said. "Shall we move on to the next warehouse?"

"You, who is known as Victoria, will not leave the place that is known as here."

They all jumped to attention at the unfamiliar voice, and turned to see a large group of Kraang. They looked exactly how Raph had described them. Some of them were men with gaunt, tired faces, while others were silver robots, some of which surrounded in purple-ish blue membrane. All of them had pink brain-like aliens sitting in the abdomen.

Leo groaned and was grateful that Master Splinter wasn't here to see this. They, who were supposed to be ninjas, had been snuck up on by a whole flock of Kraang droids.

"Oh yeah?" Mikey shouted. "Well the one who is know as Victoria WILL leave the place that is know as here with the turtles... who are known as... us?"

"The ones who are known as the turtles do not know what is it they are speaking of," The supposed leader of the group of aliens said. "The one who is known as Victoria belongs to Kraang as Kraang has need of the one who is known Victoria for the invasion that is known as the invasion of Kraang. The one who is known as Victoria is the only who who is known as worth while to Kraang as she was the only human to survive the explosion that is know as the explosion done by Kraang."

Tori's cheeks burned in anger and her eyes turned almost black with rage. They thought that her family's death was meaningless? That they were not worth while?

"You want me?" She growled. "Come and get me scrum bags!" Then, before anyone could blink, she stole a shuriken from Leo's belt, and threw it at the kraang droid that had done all the speaking. It struck the bot with deadly precision, lodging itself deep into its forehead. The Kraang droid short circuited and collapsed to the ground, and the brain-like creature inside jumped out, running for safety and squealing like a pig.

Then the fight exploded into motion. There were 7 Kraang droids, not counting the one that Tori had already taken out. It was a blur of motion for everyone, and as quickly as it had started, it was finished. The troupe of Kraang droids was now a pile of scrap metal. All the actual Kraang had ejected from the damaged suits and retreated- all except one. Tori had somehow managed to rip the arms and legs off of this particular droid and trapped the kraang that was held within.

She held another shuriken (that Donnie later realized had been snuck from HIS belt during the fighting) right at eye level with the pink fleshy creature.

"Why are the kraang after me? What did they do to me? And how am I of use in your invasion?" She all but growled. As Raph looked at her, he realized that she was actually kind of scary like this. This was not her being playful, protective, mischievous, or determined. This was the darker side of her. The hurt side of her that wanted to avenge her family, and stop the kraang from ever hurting anyone again.

"Kraang will never tell the one who is known as Victoria the secrets that are known as the secrets of Kraang," It said stubbornly. Then, the actual creature opened its eyes and ejected out the butt of the robot, scuttling away through a rabbit sized hole in the wall, and disappearing from sight.

"Fudge-nuggets," Tori cursed comically under her breath. Running a hand through her messy hair, she sighed and turned back to the turtles. They each had a few more scratches on their plastron, and a bruise was starting to swell on Donnie's shoulder, but for the most part, they were okay.

Mikey leaned towards Raph to whisper in his ear.

"What are fudge-nuggets?" He asked. Raph groaned and shoved him away.

They didn't say anything for a while after that. Then, Leo finally stepped forward.

"Let's head back to the lair."

It was still pretty early, but no-one complained.

Leo took the lead and dropped down into the sewers followed by Donnie, then Mikey, Tori, and finally Raph taking up the rear and closing the manhole cover. It was quiet, and the only sound was the lazy flowing of the sewer sludge. Not even Mikey interrupted the silence.

Raph looked down at Tori who was staring ahead determine not to cry, but the look of desperation was evident in the way she was holding herself. She walked stiffly, her hands not swinging by her sides as they usually would, and her shoulders were hunched and strained.

"Aw, don't worry princess," he said patting her shoulder awkwardly. "We'll get everything sorted out eventually." He massaged her between the shoulder blades and she abruptly stop walking and closed her eyes, unconsciously leaning into his touch. He looked on in amusement as the tension in her shoulders and on her face melted away and she hummed in appreciation. Mikey watched in fascination as the girl he had known as a wired firecracker turned into melted putty in Raph's hands.

"Dude, how did you do that?" he asked. Tori suddenly snapped back to reality and slapped his hand away, shooting him a deadly glare.

"Keep your hands to yourself," she snapped, then paused. "And stop calling me princess!" She stomped ahead and Raph had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing out loud. Oh yeah, this girl definitely had some spunk.

 _ **Alright, that's enough chapters for today. I promise I will post another tomorrow. :)**_


	12. The Ones Who Call Themselves Kraang

**_Okay, quick response to 'Guest's question "Is it ok if I ship raph and tori because they seem to make a great couple"_**

 ** _Answer: Yes you are allowed to ship Raph and Tori. XD Honestly, anyone can ship whoever they want in this tory, but you may or may not be happier with the ending if you do ship Raph and Tori. Sorry Raph/Mona Lisa shippers. Tori isn't about to let that happen._**

"Raph?" Leo asked, peeking his head into his brothers room. "Can we talk for a minute?" It was an unspoken rule throughout the whole lair that Raph as not to be disturbed if he was hiding in his room, but it was a chance that Leo was just going to have to take.

Raph looked up from where he was feeding Spike.

"Uh, sure..." He set down the package of lettuce and turned his full attention to Leo.

The oldest brother entered the room, and closed the door behind him with a click. Then he stood there awkwardly for several moments, trying to find a way to bring up the topic without it coming off the wrong way.

"I wanted to talk to you about Tori..." Raph instinctively tensed, but not enough for Leo to notice. There was any number of topics about Tori that Leo could bring up, and not all of them were ones he was willing to talk about.

"Donnie said the Kraang have been acting up a bit lately, buying warehouses and stocking it with stolen goods and kidnapping scientists... I know the Kraang is a touchy subject for Tori and I was wondering if you thought it would do her good to conquer some fears, or if it would open up some fresh wounds." Raph almost released a sigh of relief. This conversation he could deal with- even if it was kind of touchy-feely.

"Why didn't you bring this to Master Splinter?" Raph asked.

"I did. He told me that you know her better than he does." The surprise on Raph's face was very evident that time, but he didn't question why.

He thought back to earlier when she had hit a bullseye just by picturing the Kraang, and then pictured her sitting alone at night, waiting for them to come back to give her an update on her family's murders.

"Honestly, I think she'd be better off coming with us on missions against the Kraang. If I was the only one to survive an explosion done by them, I'd want to get back at them."

"You would also probably lose your head and make stupid mistakes," Leo pointed out.

"That's why we would be there with her. We can stop her from making stupid decisions. That's what we have you around for isn't it?"

Leo smirked and nodded. "Alright then. You better start getting ready then. It'll be dark soon." Raph nodded and went back to feeding his pet turtle as Leo left to go get ready himself.

"Well Spike, I guess things are about to get interesting."

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"So what are we doing here again?" Tori asked. When the guys had said they were going to sneak into some Kraang facilities, she had thought they would be sneaking into a super secret underwater spaceship, or a very well hidden science lab with out of this world security systems. Imagine how disappointed she was when she found out they were only poking around in some warehouses.

"The Kraang have been buying hundreds of warehouses throughout New York, and stocking them with various unknown supplies," Leo explained. "It's also possible that they might be keeping some of the scientists they kidnapped, like April's dad, prisoner in one of these warehouses. We're just here to figure out what it is that their stocking up on and what they're planning so that we know how to stop them."

Tori nodded and continued following behind Donnie as all five of them walked one after the other on a thin support beam in the first warehouse of the night. So far this was one pretty void of anything even slightly interesting. There was a stack of empty cardboard boxes in one corner, a few discarded and empty mutagen canisters, and enough dust to fill a sandbox.

"I don't think we're going to find anything in this one Leo," Donnie said. "There aren't even any radio waves coming from in here."

And so they moved onto the next one. And the next one, and a few more after that.

"Are we sure that the Kraang are supposed to be here?" Tori asked. "Because unless they can turn invisible, I haven't seen any."

"Invisible Kraang?" Mikey asked, eyes widening. "Dudes, that would be the last thing we need! They could, like, sneak into the lair and steal all our pizza!" Raph smacked him upside the head, causing the youngest turtle to pitch forward into Leo who then lost his balance and fell into Tori.

She let out a surprised squawk, and before she could catch her balance, she fell off the side of the rafter and landed hard on the ground with a loud _'THUD'_.

"Tori!" All four of the brothers leapt lightly down from the rafters and crowded around her.

"Shell, are you alright?" Raph asked. They all reached to help her back to her feet, but she shook her head quickly.

"Don't touch me. Wait until my ribs and leg heal." They all stopped and blinked in surprise. Raph looked down at her leg and was horrified to see the piercing shape of a broken bone sticking out of the side of her leg. But instead of swelling like a balloon, the leg was slowly straightening itself out and the penetrating bone retreated back inside of her leg. The muscles jumped and twitched until everything finally stopped moving.

"Fascinating," Donnie breathed. "If anyone else had that kind of injury, they'd never walk right again. You healed in 46 Seconds!"

"That was either the coolest or grossest thing I've ever seen," Mikey said honestly, earning an elbow to the ribs from Leo and Raph.

Tori laughed shakily and slowly pushed herself to her feet. She looked paler than usual, and a little tired - side effects of super healing most likely- but she looked completely fine.

"So," she said. "Shall we move on to the next warehouse?"

"You, who is known as Victoria, will not leave the place that is known as here."

They all jumped to attention at the unfamiliar voice, and turned to see a large group of Kraang. They looked exactly how Raph had described them. Some of them were men with gaunt, tired faces, while others were silver robots, some of which surrounded in purple-ish blue membrane. All of them had pink brain-like aliens sitting in the abdomen.

Leo groaned and was grateful that Master Splinter wasn't here to see this. They, who were supposed to be ninjas, had been snuck up on by a whole flock of Kraang droids.

"Oh yeah?" Mikey shouted. "Well the one who is know as Victoria WILL leave the place that is know as here with the turtles... who are known as... us?"

"The ones who are known as the turtles do not know what is it they are speaking of," The supposed leader of the group of aliens said. "The one who is known as Victoria belongs to Kraang as Kraang has need of the one who is known Victoria for the invasion that is known as the invasion of Kraang. The one who is known as Victoria is the only who who is known as worth while to Kraang as she was the only human to survive the explosion that is know as the explosion done by Kraang."

Tori's cheeks burned in anger and her eyes turned almost black with rage. They thought that her family's death was meaningless? That they were not worth while?

"You want me?" She growled. "Come and get me scrum bags!" Then, before anyone could blink, she stole a shuriken from Leo's belt, and threw it at the kraang droid that had done all the speaking. It struck the bot with deadly precision, lodging itself deep into its forehead. The Kraang droid short circuited and collapsed to the ground, and the brain-like creature inside jumped out, running for safety and squealing like a pig.

Then the fight exploded into motion. There were 7 Kraang droids, not counting the one that Tori had already taken out. It was a blur of motion for everyone, and as quickly as it had started, it was finished. The troupe of Kraang droids was now a pile of scrap metal. All the actual Kraang had ejected from the damaged suits and retreated- all except one. Tori had somehow managed to rip the arms and legs off of this particular droid and trapped the kraang that was held within.

She held another shuriken (that Donnie later realized had been snuck from HIS belt during the fighting) right at eye level with the pink fleshy creature.

"Why are the kraang after me? What did they do to me? And how am I of use in your invasion?" She all but growled. As Raph looked at her, he realized that she was actually kind of scary like this. This was not her being playful, protective, mischievous, or determined. This was the darker side of her. The hurt side of her that wanted to avenge her family, and stop the kraang from ever hurting anyone again.

"Kraang will never tell the one who is known as Victoria the secrets that are known as the secrets of Kraang," It said stubbornly. Then, the actual creature opened its eyes and ejected out the butt of the robot, scuttling away through a rabbit sized hole in the wall, and disappearing from sight.

"Fudge-nuggets," Tori cursed comically under her breath. Running a hand through her messy hair, she sighed and turned back to the turtles. They each had a few more scratches on their plastron, and a bruise was starting to swell on Donnie's shoulder, but for the most part, they were okay.

Mikey leaned towards Raph to whisper in his ear.

"What are fudge-nuggets?" He asked. Raph groaned and shoved him away.

They didn't say anything for a while after that. Then, Leo finally stepped forward.

"Let's head back to the lair."

It was still pretty early, but no-one complained.

Leo took the lead and dropped down into the sewers followed by Donnie, then Mikey, Tori, and finally Raph taking up the rear and closing the manhole cover. It was quiet, and the only sound was the lazy flowing of the sewer sludge. Not even Mikey interrupted the silence.

Raph looked down at Tori who was staring ahead determine not to cry, but the look of desperation was evident in the way she was holding herself. She walked stiffly, her hands not swinging by her sides as they usually would, and her shoulders were hunched and strained.

"Aw, don't worry princess," he said patting her shoulder awkwardly. "We'll get everything sorted out eventually." He massaged her between the shoulder blades and she abruptly stop walking and closed her eyes, unconsciously leaning into his touch. He looked on in amusement as the tension in her shoulders and on her face melted away and she hummed in appreciation. Mikey watched in fascination as the girl he had known as a wired firecracker turned into melted putty in Raph's hands.

"Dude, how did you do that?" he asked. Tori suddenly snapped back to reality and slapped his hand away, shooting him a deadly glare.

"Keep your hands to yourself," she snapped, then paused. "And stop calling me princess!" She stomped ahead and Raph had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing out loud. Oh yeah, this girl definitely had some spunk.


	13. Random Day of Goofballs

Raph found Tori the next morning giggling at a YouTube video with Mikey. Both of them were trying to be quiet as it was still pretty early, but whatever they were watching must have been hilarious, because neither one of them could completely stifle their giggling.

"What'cha watching?" he asked, making a bowl of cereal for himself and sitting across from them.

Tori gave him a huge goofy grin and her eyes sparkled a light caramel color. He filed the new eye color away as "goofy" in his mind.

She took an ear bud out of her ear and Mikey followed her lead taking the other one out of his ear. They both looked so ridiculous grinning at him like that, it felt contagious.

"What?" he laughed. Tori slid the laptop across the lab to him.

"You have to watch this. Even if you're not a Harry Potter fan, this thing is hilarious."

Curiously he peered at the screen and saw a video called "Potter Puppet Pals: The Mysterious Ticking Noise".

Somehow he was already regretting agreeing to watch it. He hadn't read the books, but he had seen some of the movies, and understood who the characters were, so he was not completely lost when watching the video.

Tori and Mikey, despite not being able to hear or see the video themselves, were still getting a kick out of it by watching Raph's reaction.

Admittedly, it was pretty funny, but not enough for him to crack up like the two doofuses sitting across from him. Still he smiled and shook his head as he pushed the computer back in their direction.

"You two are weird," he said. They both just kept beaming at him and then proceeded to watch the video... again.

Raph just laughed and continued eating his cereal.

"Well, you all look happy this morning," Leo noted as he entered the kitchen. Raph shrugged and gestured at Tori and Mikey

"Those two goofballs started it. Don't know how they can be so hyper this early in the morning." The contagious smiles just seemed to keep spreading as Leo started doing it too.

This was going to be a good day, Raph could feel it in his bones.

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"Victoria," Master Splinter called, and she snapped to attention. "You will be sparing against Raphael." They glanced at each other, shrugged, and made their way to the center of the dojo.

Tori was well aware that she was at the disadvantage against Raph. Not only had he been training longer than her, but he also knew everything that she was capable of. He helped to train her every day. He knew what she had been taught thus far and how well she could execute each individual kata. He also knew what she was bad at and needed to work on. That meant she would have to improvise and think fast- a lot. That's probably why Master Splinter was having her spar him at all.

Raph and Tori turned to face each other.

"Good luck," he muttered. This sent a flare of competitiveness through her, and it suddenly became her soul purpose to prove him wrong. She didn't need his luck! Besides, she wasn't at a complete disadvantage; she had seen him train before too and he didn't know everything she knew. Plus there was a certain promise she had uphold, having to do with being called Princess on numerous occasions.

"Hajime!"

Raph did not hesitate like Leo did when she had fought him, but neither did Tori. As he charged like a bull, she waited to the last second before stepping out of the way and sending a quick jab at the back of his knee. The strike to the nerve forced his knees to collapse and he did a faceplant onto the ground. Mikey, Leo, and Donnie all "oohed" in sympathy, and Tori was worried that Raph was going get angry as she let him get back to his feet, but when he looked up he was grinning playfully.

The whole time they "fought" he had that stupid grin on his face and it was infectious. During the spar, Tori managed to squeeze in a few actual katas, and used many of his pressure points against him. Some of them didn't effect him at all as he was, after all, a turtle, but many of them had strange effects on him. Pinching the nerve on his neck, of course, could force him to retreat into his shell. When she struck his nose, he quite literally _squeaked_ , but it didn't seem to actually hurt him. Trying to get to any of the bigger nerve strikes to the abdomen was made just about impossible by this shell, so she didn't even bother trying. She did successfully give his a dead arm though. His arm was virtually useless from the elbow down for the next twenty minutes.

In the end, Raph did win, but Tori did manage to put up quite the fight. She had lasted a whole fifteen minutes- much longer than any of them could had expected. They both sat panting and giggling on the sidelines for the rest of training while Leo spared against Mikey and Donnie. Just before they were about to break for lunch, Tori struck the "shell-retreat" nerve one last time.

"Don't call me princess!" She scolded, and ran before he could get his bearings back.

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Watching Tori read was like reading a book all in itself. It was the most open he ever saw her. Usually she was pretty guarded, using sarcasm and wit to avoid an uncomfortable situation rather than opening up to him or one of his brothers. But when she was reading she reacted to everything. Sometimes she would look angry, or upset, and other times he would hear her snort as she tried to cover up her laughter, a huge grin on her face all the while. And, as it turned out, she _loved_ to read.

This time when he snuck a glimpse at her, she was frowning in disapproval. She even went so far as to purse her lips.

"What are you so worked up about?" he laughed. She looked up, startled, as if she had forgotten he was there.

"Nothing really, just..." She gestured lamely at the book in her hands- 'To Kill a Mockingbird' he noted- as if it had offended her in someway.

"What about it?" he asked.

She frowned again as she stared at the cover.

"I just don't remember being that cruel as a little kid," she said. "It says: _'Lemme think a minute... it's sort of like making a turtle come out...'_

 _'Hows that?' asked Dill._

 _'Strike a match under him._ ' And then the little boy doesn't even consider that maybe he's hurting the turtle every time he strikes a match under his belly. He even says: ' _Turtles can't feel, stupid_.' " Tori shook her head. "I can't remember ever being that mean to a poor, almost defenseless, animal. And they say our generation is messed up..."

Somehow this seemed to strike Raph as hilarious.

"Uh, I'm a turtle, and I'm definitely not defenseless." She rolled her eyes at him, but smirked nonetheless.

"It's not your belly they're lighting a match under," she pointed out.

"Touche." Still he continued to smirk right back at her "I never took you as the 'Animal Rights' kind of person," he mused.

She snorted and finally shut the book.

"You kidding? I grew up watching animal planet- I thought Dora the Explorer was for chumps. I never played with dolls, always stuffed animals or plastic safari figurines. One time when a mean babysitter hid my toy rat in my sandbox, I was digging around looking for it for half an hour... Before I got distracted by the adorable baby mole running around in circles in my driveway. The babysitter freaked out when he came outside and saw me holding it. I insisted I would help it find its way home." She pondered for a moment. "I never did find my toy rat. I think he stole it."

They both laughed and Raph went back to "reading" the motorcycle magazine.

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It had been by complete accident that Raph found out Tori was ticklish. Honestly he had never even thought it possible. She could get hit by a truck and still manage to walk it off, acting like she was fine. Something as... normal as being ticklish just didn't compute in his mind.

He was doing his usual pushups, balanced on the tips of his sai, only difference was Tori laying on his shell, snacking on potato chips and still reading her book. It was a nice challenge with the bit of extra weight, but he didn't want to do it all day.

"You comfortable?" He asked, trying not to show that he was actually getting tired (8 sets of 37 reps with a teenage girl on top of you will do that to you).

"Yep." She popped her 'p' and flipped the page of her book.

"... Can you get off now?"

"Nope." She popped another potato chip into her mouth.

Raph's lips twitched threatening to smile, but he resisted for the time being.

"I'm going to stand up and let you fall if you don't get up," he threatened mildly.

"No you won't." Another crunch suggested she had just eaten another potato chip.

'Shell,' he thought as he realized that she was right.

He dropped one of the sai, balanced on only one of them, and used his free hand to reach back and poke her.

"Fun's over; get off." He poked her in the side again and that's when it happened.

She squealed.

It wasn't just a quiet squeak either, it was a high pitched, ear bleeding, earth shattering shriek. As soon as she had made the sound she clapped a hand over her mouth, mortified that such a sound had ever left her.

Raph stared laughing and as his body shook, Tori shook with it.

"What was that?" he chuckled.

Tori grumbled "Nothing," and scrambled out the door with her chips and book to take refuge in her room before he could ask any more questions. Raph didn't see her again for several hours after that.

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"Cockroaches."

"No way!"

"Yes way, those things are creepy, and I hate 'em."

"But their so little!"

"You obviously haven't been living in New York City long enough. Mikey once found one the size of a pizza slice. I had nightmares about it for weeks."

"Alright, I'll admit that is pretty gross, but they aren't scary."

"Alright then oh great and mighty Fearless Princess, what are you afraid of?"

Tori sat back a moment and thought hard. She did not fear many actual THINGS per say. Sure, she like everyone else, feared the death of everyone close to her- which she had been dealing with fairly well other than sleeping in Raph's room- but to actually be afraid of someTHING...

"Crocodile," she decided finally. "I used to have nightmares about them when I was little. When my family visited the zoo, I refused to even look at them. Same goes for alligators, caimans, gharials, anything of that sort. They terrify me."

"Thats pretty fair," Raph said. "Except I'm pretty sure there aren't any of those in Montana. Kind of an irrelevant fear isn't it?"

Tori almost pointed out that a fear of cockroaches was pretty irrelevant as they couldn't hurt anyone, but decided against it.

"When I was 7 years old, I lived in Georgia and there were a lot of alligators. I watched one almost eat my dog. I find that more than a relevant reason to fear them."

Raph nodded in agreement. At least she wasn't afraid of turtles.


	14. Metalhead

Lasers were firing left and right and Tori admired the fluid way the turtles could weave around the room without getting shot. Already, she herself had been shot three times, but she covered it up and let the burns heal before the guys even noticed.

"Don't let them surround you!" Leo ordered. "Failure is not an option."

 _'No it is not_ ,' She agreed silently.

Donnie ran up along side his oldest brother, eyes wide in growing concern, for the situation that was quickening growing out of control.

"Technically, failure is always an option," he pointed out.

Raph, hearing this comment, joined them. "You know what else is an option?" He growled. "Slapping you!"

Tori ran up on the other side of Raph and deflected a laser with a garbage can lid she had picked up outside. "Or we could spend more time fighting the Kraang than each other." Raph just stared at her.

"Just a suggestion." She smirked.

A barrage of purple lasers interrupted the moment and divided them back up again. Tori barely held in a hiss at the relentless sting on her exposed bicep.

Donnie jumped to relative safety beside a stack of crates and surveyed the scene. "Mikey! On the right!"

"Your right or my right?" The youngest turtle asked, eyes darting around the warehouse. The question was answered for him as more shots were fired to his right. With a panicked scream, he somersaulted to shelter and Donnie jumped in to defend him, swinging wide with his bow staff, and bring it down hard on the offending kraang's head...

The result was less than impressive.

"Seriously?" Tori panted. "That didn't do anything?"

Donnie growled his frustration. "I hate this thing!" he shouted for all the warehouse to hear.

The unaffected droid raised it's gun to shoot him point blank, when Raph's sai embedded itself it the droid's head, and Raph soon sailed in after to finish it off. He turned to Donnie.

"Nice work," he teased. "When we're done here, there's a marching band that needs a majorette."

"What, are you volunteering?" Tori asked him. "If so, I hate to tell you this Raph-" she kicked high and completely decapitated a Kraang bot. "But they don't accept wimps in their midst."

Raph scowled and was about to shoot back something equally snippy, when they heard the metal doors to one side of them creak open, and a small troop of Kraang droids pulled a giant, cannon-esc, contraption into the open.

The five of them stood together and turned to the challenging opponents. "Everyone stand your ground!" Leo ordered. The cannon started to power up and his eyes widened considerably. "On second thought, run!" They all leapt in different directions, and the weapon was too slow to keep up with them.

Donnie was not as lucky as the others as he ducked out if the way of the blazer, but not fast enough to get his staff out of the way.

At the smell of ashes, he looked down at the piece of charged wood in his hands.

"Oh, come on!"

Mikey giggled. "Dude, your weapon just exploded!" The weapon charged again, aimed in his direction, and Donnie used the distraction to escape behind a steel support beam.

"How am I supposed to fight advanced alien technology with a stupid _STICK_?" He screamed. Tori rolled in beside him.

"Well, you can use it to give them splinters. They have very fragile joints."

Donnie chose to ignore her and dove back into the fight- without his "stick."

It soon became apparent that the small band of ninjas (plus Tori) were making quick work of the Kraang, and the alien numbers were dwindling. Eventually though, they were corned again with the Kraang-cannon and half a dozen laser guns aimed directly at them.

"Kraang, destroy those who call themselves the turtles when that which is the signal is the signal that is given by me!" One of the droids ordered another.

Out if the corner of her eye, Tori saw Leo slip a ninja throwing star out of his belt and throw it. It bounced off a steel support beam, ricocheted off the prongs of a forklift, and smashed into the same forklift's control panel, thus causing it to start forward and collide with the canon and the remaining Kraang.

Tori stared open mouthed. "Sweet!"

Thoroughly pleased with their success, all five of them made their way to the nearest window to exit and head back to the lair.

"Dumb luck," Raph stated with a smirk at Leo once they were outside.

"Wasn't luck, my friend," Leo grinned. "And dumb had nothing to do with it." Tori laughed appreciatively and high-fived him.

"Hey," Donnie called from the window. "Give me a hand with this." They all looked up at him in confusion.

"A hand with what?" Leo asked.

Donnie glanced at whatever it was he was trying to drag out the window and back at them before grinning guiltily.

"Ah, well, just a... Kraang droid..."

Ten minutes later, Raph and Donnie had finally gotten the droid out the window and down the street to the nearest manhole cover.

"We're carrying this thing because... why?" Raph asked.

Donnie looked surprised at the question, like the answer was obvious. "Don't you want to understand how these things work?"

Raph rolled his eyes. "I know how they work. You hit them till the brainy toy surprise pops out."

Tori tried to hold in her laughter for Donnie's sake, but a loud snort escaped her before she could stop herself, and Raph sent her a triumphant grin.

Donnie didn't seem to notice. "That's your problem, Raph. You never think things through." With that he dropped the bot into the sewer and dusted his hands off- only to notice that it had gotten stuck in the manhole entrance.

Raph glanced down at it, then pointedly back at Donnie. "Was that supposed to fit?"

Again Tori could not completely stifle her laugh, but it was thankfully drowned out by Donnie kicking furiously at the Kraang droid. Raph heard though, and that was enough to lift his mood for the rest of the night.

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It was still early- relatively speaking- when they all got back to the lair, and April was still there, scribbling down some math equations. She looked up when they entered and smiled brightly.

"So, I'm guessing it went well?"

Leo shrugged nonchalantly. "Well, we won if that's what you're asking."

"But we still didn't get any closer to finding out any of their plans," Tori finished, flopping into a beanbag chair and mildly stroking Spike's head (who just so happened to be hanging out on the coffee table.)

"Well, you have to start somewhere I guess," April sighed. She glanced over at Donnie who was dragging the Kraang corps into the lair. "Hey Donnie?" He almost dropped the bot in surprise. "Is it alright if I borrow your laptop?"

"O-oh s-sure April. Go right ahead."

She smiled gratefully at him and began typing away.

"Hey Tori, do you know anything about making a website or a blog?" April asked as she clicked on the internet browser.

"I do indeed," the other girl replied. "What exactly do you have in mind?" She scooted closer to look over her shoulder at the computer screen.

"Well, I want to help out in any way I can, and one way is to gather intel on the Kraang. We can't be the only people in New York to have seen them, so maybe, if I make a website dedicated to weird occurrences around the city, we might get a few leads."

Tori scratched her head. "So, in other words, you want to make an alien themed conspiracy theory sight where any weirdo in New York can post pictures and videos?"

April laughed. "That's one way to put it," she admitted. "I was just thinking that if someone took a picture of the Kraang up to one of their evil plans, that might give me a lead on where my dad is."

Tori nodded. It's as good a way to find leads as any, I guess."

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April and Tori ended up staying up most of the night working on creating the website. April simply wanted something that functioned correctly, but Tori had insisted on adding extra safety measures and programs to fight off hackers, as well as making it look as professional as possible.

"If someone looks at a website and realizes right away that it doesn't look pretty, or if it doesn't look like it was done by a financially successful company, they immediately backtrack and never return to the site," Tori had explained. "If we want info, we have to play to the marketing eye."

April ended up staying the night as it made more sense to borrow clothes from Tori than to walk home, alone, at three in the morning. They both camped out in the living room and after the expected whispers and giggling, they fell asleep.

Tori had always been a light sleeper, so it really was no surprise that when Raph came back into the living room, Tori jerked awake.

"Hey," she greeted, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "What are you still doing up?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Couldn't sleep, then I realized you were still out here." He looked over at April who was asleep on a recliner, then at the closed laptop. "Are you..." he glanced at Tori, then away again, feeling uncharacteristically bashful. "Are you sleeping out here tonight?"

Tori looked at him, really looked at him, but he refused to meet her gaze.

"I might as well," she said, waving to her nest of blankets. A look of something like hurt or disappointment flashed across his face and she quickly backtracked. "But you can stay out here too!" She said. "Maybe we can watch a movie."

Raph shot her a quick, maybe confused, look. "Uh... sure."

"Sweet!" Tori grinned, scooting over on the cement bench (she had been born with the wonderful ability to sleep on any surface, including cement) and he hesitantly sat beside her. "Have you ever seen Cinderella Man?"

Raph wrinkled his nose in distaste and glanced at her to see if she was joking. "Cinderella Man? What sort of fluffed up fairy tale is that?"

Tori rolled her eyes good naturedly and opened Donnie's laptop. "It's not a fairy tale about a guy losing his glass slipper at a ball, it's a true story about a boxer in the 1930's named James Braddock, played by Russell Crowe. It's also what first got me into boxing."

That seemed to catch Raph's attention. "A boxer huh? Sounds like it could be worth watching."

Tori was already logging on to her Amazon account as he said this, and he figured that, even if he had refused, she would have made him watch it.

He didn't regret agreeing though as the beginning credits started rolling, and Tori snuggled down into her nest of blankets again, brushing his elbow with her bare shoulder and making him blush unexpectedly.

What was this odd little girl doing to him?

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"This technology is light-years ahead of anything I've ever seen!" Donnie all but squealed in excitement the next morning as he continued evaluating the Kraang tech. "Do you know what this is?" Donnie asked April, holding out an odd, hexagonal, contraption.

April didn't even look up from what she was doing in the laptop to see what he was referring to. "No."

"Neither do I!" Donnie squealed again. "But I can't wait to find out!"

Tori, who was cooing over Spike (who Raph noticed was enjoying the attention a little too much) looked up at the sound of Master Splinter entering the room, and Raph followed her gaze.

"Look, Spike," He said, glimpsing the new staff in his Sensei's hands. "Donnie got another stick to break."

Tori elbowed him and he leaned away, cackling.

Donnie looked up when Splinter held out the bot staff. "With all due respect, Sensei," he said with reproach, "I can't keep fighting alien technology with a 6-foot staff. I was... hoping to upgrade my weapon."

"Mmm. A 7-foot staff." He mused. "Interesting."

Donnie winced. "No, I meant using modern technology."

Splinter nodded again in consideration. "Aah, a solar-powered staff."

Donnie, catching on to the teasing lilt in his voice, glared in frustration. "I'm serious, sensei!"

"I know," he finally acknowledged. "And yes, you may upgrade your weapon."

Donnie seemed to be prepared for a different answer though.

"That's totally unfair! You can't just-" He paused and blinked. "Wait, did you say yes?

Splinter bowed his head in agreement. "Ninjas have improved their arsenal for centuries. We are masters of adaptation."

"That is great!" Donnie said, leaping to his feet. "Cause with this technology, I will be invincible!" He started pacing around, picking up random parts of the Kraang droid. "What should I make? Electric sais? Multi-shot shuriken? Plasma swords!" He shivered and grinned.

"I just gave myself goosebumps." He quickly knelt down next to April. "You wanna feel?" He asked, flexing his biceps.

Again, she didn't look up. "Pass."

"But remember," Splinter represented gently. "Technology is a means, not an end. It is you who must prevail in battle, not your weapon. Combat is not a video game."

"That's it!" Donnie said, excitedly, dragging all the parts to his lab. "I'll turn combat into a video game! Thanks, sensei."

Everyone left in the living room watched him go with mixed reactions. Tori was the first to speak up.

"This could either go really well, or really, really, bad..."

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Nine hours later, and Donnie still wasn't out yet. Tori had brought food into him at one point, but she was pretty sure that if she checked up on him, it would still be where she left it; cold and untouched.

April was back on the laptop (after a brief break in which Tori had insisted she do something else to let her eyes rest after staring at a screen for so long) and typing away on her new website.

"Hey guys!" She said excitedly. "Check out this post I got!"

Raph and Leo were preoccupied with a game of virtual hockey, and Tori was back in the kitchen scrounging around for something to sate her sweet-tooth, but Raph called out, "Hang on, April, I just have to destroy Lame-onardo." He harshly pounded some buttons, scored a double combo, and destroyed Leo's hockey player.

After a brief victory dance, he and Leo joined her at the laptop. "So what's up?"

"Tori helped me set up a message board last night to collect unusual sightings around New York," April explained, and Tori peaked her head around the corner at the mention of her name. "People send in pics, videos, I also get some stuff that may help us track the Kraang and find my Dad. Like this video of a gas explosion."

She played a video someone named "KoolKyd1987" had posted just seconds earlier. April zoomed in on a curtain part of the video, and when Tori peaked over her shoulder, she blanched at what she saw.

"A Kraangdroid," Leo confirmed.

Mikey, who had been napping in the tire-swing, jumped awake. "Where?" He screeched, before slipping and falling into the water below him. Tori pitied the poor guy, but didn't have the time to offer him counseling on his galactic xenophobia."

Leo seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he watch Mikey rise back to the surface and glance around wearily. Instead of commenting on it though, he instead said, "We'll check it out tonight."

April looked up a little angrily. "Why not now?"

Leo regarded her with an obvious do-you-really-have-to-ask look. "Because it's daytime. We can't let anyone see us."

April stood and closed the laptop. "Well, I can," she said seriously, then got up to leave.

Leo looked alarmed and stepped in front of her. "April, think about this," he reasoned. "It could be dangerous."

April crossed her arms and glared up at him. "You know what else could be dangerous?" She challenged. "Standing between me and my father."

Leo, realizing this was a fight he was not about to win, retreated.

"Okay," he said, and stepped to the side.

April stormed out of the lair and silence fell of the individuals left behind.

Realizing April had absolutely no stealth (she could be heard approaching the lair when she was still about a block away) and no training, _and_ she ran a higher chance of getting herself caught than becoming the Sherlock of the twenty-first century, Tori jumped to her feet, and chaced after her friend.

"Wait for me!" She called out after a moment. She quickly grabbed her shell cell, a black hoodie, some throwing stars, then proceeded to run after the angry red-head..

Leo looked as if he was about to try and stop her as well, but Raph stopped him.

"April is almost guaranteed to get caught trying to spy on the Kraang," he said. "Tori on the other hand, knows what she's doing. Sometimes I think that maybe her senses are a little above average, so if anyone can keep April out of trouble, it's Tori."

"As long as Tori doesn't forget that it's a surveillance mission, and not a family vengeance mission," Leo countered.

Raph shook his head. "She wouldn't do that." A pause, then:,"At least, I hope she wouldn't..."

They exchanged a worried look.

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It didn't take long for Tori to catch up to April.

"What are you doing here?" She asked a little snappishly. "If you're going to try and stop me too, then-"

"I'm here to help you," Tori interrupted.

Silence. "Oh," she said. "Thanks."

They continued in silence then; Tori knew better than to try and start a conversation. It was better to let April stew for a while and hope she calmed down by the time they found the Kraang- if they found them at all.

When they finally surfaced above ground, the sun had set, but there was still about an hour of light left. Finding the Kraang droid was suspiciously easy, but Tori didn't want to suggest retreating; then April would insist on going alone after all.

The Kraang lead them to another warehouse in the same vicinity as the last one she and the Turtles had trashed just the night before. It typed a code into a complex looking keypad and entered the premises.

"Okay, Kraang-creep," April whispered, more to herself than anyone else. "Lead the way." She started forward but Tori stopped her.

"Wait!" She whispered urgently. "We can't just go waltzing in the front door!"

"Then what do you suggest we do?" April asked crossly.

"Well, I suggest ninja stealth mode if we want to get out of this alive," she said. "First off, your keys are jiggling too loud. You have to get rid of them. Hide them under the dumpster. Leave your phone too; we don't want it to go off while we're in stealth mode."

That being done, she continued. "Now, I suggest we sneak in from that window," Tori said, pointing at a skylight. "The sun is down, there aren't any street lamps, and the moon isn't out yet, so we shouldn't cast a shadow, we get a bird's-eye view of everything, there is nothing to bump into and, better yet, no-one ever looks up. We won't be seen as long as we don't make any noise."

April blinked in surprise. "Wow, you really thought this out. Did you learn all of that from Master Splinter?"

Tori shook her head. "No, not really. It's just common sense, and I'm good at logic puzzles."

"Apparently," April muttered. And with that, they were off.

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Sneaking in, it turns out, had been the easy part; there hadn't even been a lock on the skylight. As it turned out, the Kraang had none of that "common sense" Tori had mention earlier.

No, the difficult part had been balancing on the support beams. For Tori it was second nature- all of her childhood gymnastics medals had come from somewhere. For April, it was a little more difficult. Twice, Tori had to save her from falling over the edge, but once she had been lead to an adjoining beam, she was able to hold on. From their vantage point, they could see everything in the small-town warehouse. It also meant they could hear everything as well.

There were only two Kraang in the warehouse at that moment in time, and the approached each other in the middle of the room.

"Is that which is the unstable mutagen ready for using in the experiment that Kraang is being ready to begin?" The first one asked.

"The unstable mutagen will be tomorrow unleashing in the water supply," the other one responded.

April gasped. "The water supply? Oh-" Tori slapped a hand over her mouth and shushed her silently, head tilted to catch the rest of the conversation.

"Many infected humans will mutate," Kraang number one mused.

"This is being a good way to perfect the mutagen to the point of perfection,' Kraang number two agreed. "And then the one known as Victoria will no longer be necessary to the plan that is know as the invasion Kraang."

Tori's jaw ticked as she clenched her teeth, and it took an incredible amount of self control to not jump down there and finish off the two Kraang just for mentioning her predicament, but that wouldn't solve anything.

"We should go and tell the guys," April whispered to Tori. "They'll be able to stop them."

Tori nodded and they left just as silently as they had appeared, never even alerting the Kraang to their presence. Just before they were about to leave though, a new thought stuff Tori.

"What if they release the mutagen into the water before we can find the guys?" She asked out loud. "They must be out patrolling by now, and they are ninjas. By the time we find them, it could be too late."

April's eyes widened and she asked, "What do we do?"

Tori stared off in contemplative silence, quickly evaluating all of her options.

"Okay, here's what we'll do..."

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New York City was known for its size and grandeur for a reason. It was huge, it was magnificent, and it was flashy. The Big Apple. This was great for bringing in tourists and immigrants, but it was bad for those who wished to never be seen, like the turtles. That being said, there were very few parts of the city they could explore, even at night, which also limited the area April had to search for them.

When she first heard the crashes, she had thought that there was no way it could be them. It didn't sound like a fight, and, as Tori had said before, they were highly trained ninjas. When she heard the arguing though, she knew it couldn't possibly be anyone else.

"-out there in the cold and I'm here eating Mikey's last slice of pizza," she heard Donnie say.

"Hey!" Came the unmistakable cry of outrage from Mikey.

"Hello?" She called out looking around. The suddenly went quiet and she heard hushed whispering.

"Guys, it's me," she tried again.

She looked up in time to see Leo peak over the edge of an apartment rooftop.

"April!" He exclaimed in surprise, and he kept down to meet her, followed closely by Mikey and Raph.

April cut right to the chase "Guys! I was just looking for you!" She started, then looked around. Where was Donnie? Why wasn't he already crowding her personal space? There came a sudden, loud, crash from behind her and she let out a surprised scream.

She jumped around to see what had caused such a racket (she also had to wonder how no one had come to investigate yet) and saw that a dumpster had been tipped over and there was the tell-tale sound of mechanical joints echoing around inside. Finally, a short, ninja-turtle-esc robot kicked its way out and it's into the open. Leo could do nothing but face palm in embarrassment.

"Still, it's stealthier than the real Donatello," Raph said, halfheartedly trying to make him feel better.

"What the heck is that?" April asked.

"It's Donnie's latest "brilliant" creation, Metalhead," Leo explained.

"Catchy name, huh?" Mikey jumped in. "My idea."

Metalhead suddenly opened its mouth and a horrible screeching sound accompanied Donnie's amplified voice as he said, "Oh, sorry, April. I'm still getting used to the controls." It's mouth closed again and Donnie's voice came from the turtle-bot again, but at a normal volume. "Whoops, megaphone button got stuck."

April shook her head, deciding enough was enough and remembering that Tori was waiting for her. "Guys, we gotta do something. The Kraang are gonna poison the city's water supply with mutagen!"

"The whole city will become a disaster area!" Leo realized aloud.

"There'll be mutants everywhere!" Metalhead/Donnie added.

"Wow," Mikey gasped. "Think of all the friends we can make!"

Realizing everyone else was unimpressed with his observation he became a little more defensive. " Excuse me for being a "glass-half-full" kinda guy."

Raph felt like something important was missing and he looked around.

"Wait a second, where's Tori?" He asked, turning to April. "I thought she was with you?"

April nodded. "She was, but then we decided to split up. She stayed to make sure the Kraang didn't succeed and sent me to look for you guys."

Raph's eyes almost bulged out of his head, and Leo though he was going to throttle April. "You mean you left her alone with the Kraang?" He asked.

April looked a little shocked with his reaction. "Well, yeah," she admitted.

"What's the matter," Leo teased. "Worried about your girlfriend?"

Mikey and Donnie oohed in synchronization and Raph felt something familiar inside of him crack.

"She's not my girlfriend," he snapped. "She's the impulsive girl with a serious vendetta against the Kraang, left alone with her family's murders.

April's eyes widened in understanding. "Okay, when you put it like that..."

"Let's go!" Leo said, and they kept into action, running in the direction of the water sanitation plant.

"Yeah!" Donnie said excitedly, steering Metalhead after them. "The Kraang don't stand a chance!"

Everyone suddenly stopped and turned to look at him.

"What?" He asked.

Leo looked down at Metal Head in disapproval. "Donnie, I need you to hang back," he said. "Metalhead is just too clumsy. It'll get in our way."

"Clumsy!?" Donnie exclaimed, throwing out Metalhead's arms in emphasis of his words, only to succeed in knocking over some garbage cans. "I did that on purpose to emphasize my point."

"You're not coming, Donnie," Leo said in his 'case-closed' voice, before leading Raph and Mikey away. April didn't even need to be told that she wasn't coming.

She put a comforting hand on Metalhead's shoulder and he looked back at her, then hung his head.

While Leo, Raph, and Mikey circled around the sewage plant to find the Kraang, April and Metalhead found a rooftop far from the danger zone to sit and keep a look out. When April appeared to be focused entirely on the three men in action, Donnie would sneak looks at her until she looked up and caught him, at which point he pretended to not be watching her.

April rolled her eyes in irritation and went back to watching they guys.

"So," Donnie said, trying to break up the tension. "You like heavy metal?"

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In no time at all, Leo, Mikey, and Raph had successfully made it inside without being spotted. Mikey and Leo regarded the scene below them and Raph looked around for their missing friend.

"Looks like a Kraang picnic down there," Leo remarked.

"Do either of you see Tori?" Raph asked.

"Hey guys."

Raph just about leapt off the support beam at the unexpected voice behind him.

"Don't do that!" He said, glaring in her direction.

Tori grinned unapologetically. "Sorry."

Leo chuckled quietly at their antics. "So team," he said. "Ready to bash some bots?"

"Destroy some droids?" Raph said.

"Take out the trash?" Tori added.

"Clean some closets?" Mikey joined in.

There was a moment of silence as they gave him "the look."

"Uh, I meant to say crush some Kraang?" He amended.

Leo gave the signal and they dropped on the first group of Kraang. Leo was the first to take action, drawing his katana as he fell from the ceiling and stabbing the one nearest to him the moment his feet touched the ground. Raph was not seconds behind his, decapitating another bot as Tori took both the pink, squishy, aliens and threw them into empty crates.

The two remaining Kraang were about to take aim at them with their plasma rifles when Mikey fell right on top of the. He then proceeded to kick the downed droids relentlessly until Raph pulled him away. Tori regarded the scene and reminded herself to talk to Mikey about the Kraang sooner rather than later; perhaps the psychological strain that came with the stress of dealing with aliens from a different dimension were taking more of a toll on the youngest turtle than she had originally thought.

The small team of four slid out of sight and quietly made their way to the main area were the majority if the Kraang were gathered. There were at least a dozen of them and they were all armed. Leo was about to discuss a battle plan when a crash sounded behind them. One of the Kraang Mikey had pummeled had somehow managed to drag itself to the main clearing in the middle if the warehouse and revealed their presence, and location, to its allies.

All four of them winced as they became the center of attention.

The Kraang didn't even hesitate to shoot at them, and they were forced to dodge back into the high stacks of crates and boxes, away from imminent death. Everywhere they tried provide though, more Kraang droids stood waiting for them and fired on sight.

"They're everywhere!" Mikey screamed at the top of his lungs as yet another would-be hiding spot was taken by a blue or silver robot. "Run!" He tried to jump for the second level balcony around the edge of the four walls, but the Kraang were already positioned there.

"Watch out!" Tori shouted, pulling him down by his ankles before he became a flying target. It was too late when the realized that the Kraang were corralling them into a corner.

"Leo," Raph panted. "We're running out of Room!"

The all jumped behind yet another stack of crates to hide from the shower of purple lasers.

"We're trapped!" Leo looked around desperately for an escape, but they were completely surrounded, and the closest window was a good 25 feet behind the enemy lines.

"Or maybe, they're the ones who are trapped!" Mikey said peaking around the corner, squeaking when he saw a laser pointed at his face, and Tori pulled him back just in time.

"Nope, I'm pretty sure it's us," she said.

It was in that moment that Metalhead fell from the skylight and effectively crushing four Kraang droids with its massive weight before sticking a pose- something that looked along the lines of a hullabaloo dancer with wasps in her skirt.

"What are you doing?" Leo hissed at Donnie. "And what is wrong with your arms?"

The metal turtle cocked it's head. "My hands aren't on my hips?"

"No!" Leo shouted in exasperation, and Raph did a facepalm. Tori could only stare at the little bot.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Donnie's newest toy," Raph groaned.

"Sorry," Donnie apologized bashfully. "Forgot to press B." Metalhead then reconfigured its arms so it was standing atop it's pile of Kraang droids in a her if pose.

The Kraang started to open fire on the shorter robot, but when they realized their lasers were having to effect whatsoever, they stopped in confusion and several checked to make sure their weapons were operational.

"Now it's my turn!" Donnie crowed proudly. One of Metalhead's hands retracted into its arm and was replaced with what looked like a machine gun muzzle. "Eat hot laser!"

The Kraang didn't even stand a chance; they stood there like deer in the headlights and Donnie demolished them, one by one, cackling maniacally through the headset. When the lasers became old, Donnie used a rocket fist which not only hit its targeted Kraang, but spun back around and hit one after another, before returning to his arm.

"Hey, Raph," Donnie called out. "How does it feel to be shown up by a toaster?"

Tori glanced at look on Raph's face and giggled. "Oh snap!"

"Burn..." Mikey said.

"Yeah, I thought that was a good one," Donnie crowed again.

"No!" Mikey repeated urgently, pointing at the approaching Kraang. "Burn!"

"Oh, Right." He turned on the approaching enemies and fought them back with a wide-range flamethrower.

"How many weapons does this thing have?" Tori asked.

"A whole arsenal," Raph grumbled.

"Seriously?" He nodded. "Jeez, that takes the whole point out if being a ninja. What are we here for, motivational support?" She paid no mind to the pink Kraang slithering away from its robot shell though as she, Mikey, Leo, and Raph were forced back into hiding back Donnie's lasers.

"Dude!" Mikey protested.

"Oops!" Metalhead directed its fire elsewhere. "Sorry, Mikey!"

"Donnie, watch the friendly fire," Leo snapped.

"Before you set us all on fire!" Tori squawked as she had to abandon her hiding place when it blew up.

Donnie was too involved in his "game" to notice though. "Here's some for you! And some for you! And, oh, yeah, I saved a little for you too! How'd that taste?"

"We've lost him," Tori sighed, taking a seat by Raph. "We might want to get out of here before he becomes completely manic."

As she was speaking, Donnie accidentally blew up some propane tanks and Metalhead was knocked back by the blast. Tori and the turtles dove for a more suitable cover from the rain of fire and embers.

When they looked up again, Metalhead was on its feet again, but this time, Donnie wasn't on control. The Kraang sitting upon its head was.

"The ones that which are called turtles will now be called turtles that are destroyed!" It declared.

Tori felt Leo and Raph tense next to her, and she prepared to fight for all of their lives. Mikey on the other hand, heaved a sigh of relief.

"I was really afraid at the beginning of the sentence," he said. "But then I sort of just lost interest towards-" He was cut off as Metalhead's hand extracted and out came the laser machine guns again, aimed right at their faces.

Tori squeaked in fear and felt for a weapon, and was unable to find one on her body or the floor around them.

"Ok," Mikey admitted. "I'm afraid again."

For the sixth or seventh time that night, they all did the only thing they could do, and dove for whatever cover they could find and lasers rained down on them.

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"Give him everything you've got!" Leo ordered. And they did, really they did, but Mikey's nun chucks simply bounced off the hard shell, Raph's sai couldn't even scratch the surface, and Leo's katana could not pierce the hard metal skin.

"He's gotta have a weak spot," Leo painted.

Mikey stopped attacking and smiled. "This always works!" He kicked Metalhead between the legs, "Hiyah!" and only succeeded in bruising his shins and making his toes throb. "Ow! Well, usually."

"He's a robot!" Tori shouted, frustrated with the lack of results she was having beating Metalhead with a kraang droid arm. "How would that have hurt him?"

Evidently done with the fight, the Kraang drop kicked Mikey, back handed Leo, and punched Raph away, then turned its attention on Tori.

"Uh oh..."

"Now Kraang will destroy you all. The one known as Victoria is no longer necessary to the plan that is now known as the invasion of Kraang. Kraang will now have all of the city that is known as New York City to mutate useless humans." Soon, Tori joined the turtles on the floor, a nasty bruise growing under the surface of the skin on her jaw.

Now, Metalhead stood above then, a group of recovered Kraang with laser guns backing him up. "Which one wants to be first to be destroyed by Kraang?"

And just like Metalhead had earlier, Donnie jumped down into the fray from the bust skylight.

"Me!" He shouted, standing protectively in front of his brothers and Tori. In his hands he was once again holding a six foot big staff.

"Donnie!" Mikey cheered. "Bangin' entrance, dude!"

"You guys deal with the droids," Donnie said, and they all stood back up, ready for a fight. "I'll handle Metalhead."

They nodded and kept for the much easier to manage droids.

Compared to fighting Metalhead, it was like beating up an army of tin cans and it took only seconds to bring them all down.

"That was... ridiculously easy," Tori said, kicking a decapitated Kraang head away.

Raph shrugged. "Yeah, well, it-"

"Hey, Kraang!" Donnie shouted above the din. "The one who is called your mother wears the boots that are made for combat!"

Tori turned and raised an eyebrow.

"Did he just say what I think he said?"

"I don't know," Mikey said. "I thought it was just the Donnie in my head that said-"

The comment that is made by you shows ignorance of Kraang!" Metalhead protested. "The ones known by you as mothers-"

"Just come get me!" Donnie said in exasperation. Metalhead, for once, did as it was told and shot pink bullets from it eyes. Donnie dodged out of the way and they exploded against a weakened pillar instead, completely knocking it loose. As Metalhead continues to trail Donnie with its rapid-fire lasers, the pillar tilted forward falling right onto Metalhead and Donnie.

When the dust cleared, Tori could make out Metalhead, slumped and sparking, Donnie's broken staff embedded in its chest.

Seeing his success, he excitedly shouted, "Booyakasha!"

"Sounds weird when he says it," Mikey whined.

Raph scoffed. "Sounds weird when you say it."

Tori, now thoroughly confused, scratched her head and asked, "What is it even supposed to mean?"

"It's my motto, dudette!"

"Do you even know what a motto is?" Raph asked.

Mikey crossed his arms defensively over his chest. "Yes!"

Tori blinked in surprise. "Really?"

Mikey stood defiant for a moment longer before slumping his shoulders. "No..."

While sparks flew sporadically from his chest, Metalhead still wasn't "dead" yet.

"That which is the revenge will be had on those who are call themselves the turtles," the Kraang warned before releasing its hold on Metalhead. For a second nothing happened, then the Kraang leapt at Donnie's face with a pig-like squeal. He screamed in surprise and shook the brain-like alien off, and it scuttled away, screaming as it went.

"Nice job, bro!" Mikey congratulated, and Donnie beamed at him.

Leo nodded his approval. "Way to go, Donnie."

"You did great!" Tori said, helping him to his feet.

"Yeah, not bad," Raph said mildly. "Except for that part where you built the thing in the first place. And the part where it broke. And the part where it tried to kill us. And the part-"

"Ok, I get it!" Donnie scolded, the high of winning quickly wearing off. Tori frowned and kicked Raph in the shin.

"Ow!" He complained, jumping out of kicking range. "What was that for?"

"You seem to forget that if Metalhead hadn't come when he had, we'd all be burnt marshmallows, and if Donnie hadn't come when the situation got out of control again, we'd be _worse_ than burnt marshmallows."

Raph raised his hands in surrender. "Alright, fine, sorry." Tori nodded in satisfaction and sent Donnie a subtle wink. He smiled back, but it still didn't change the guilt broiling in the pit of his stomach.

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As soon as they returned to the lair, Tori, being the only one without a shell and the only one to get remotely injured, zipped straight to the bathroom to take care of her injuries before anyone else noticed.

Donnie dragged Metalhead to the corner of his lab and left it there before returning to the concrete benches to tinker with one of his simpler projects.

Behind him, Mikey and Leo were watching Raph give it his all on the Space Heroes arcade game. Leo "accidentally" jostled Raph and he lost the game.

"Oh, so close to my high score," the eldest teased.

Master Splinter wandered through the room, glanced as his three jovial sons, then at the more melancholy of the four. "What troubles you, Donatello?" He asked.

Donnie stopped his tinkering and thought about just saying he was fine, but he wasn't, and nothing he said could fool Splinter.

"This was all my fault, sensei."

The widened rat nodded in agreement. "You are responsible, yes."

Donnie looked away again in shame.

"Yeah..."

"Responsible for destroying the mutagen," his sensei continued. "Responsible for saving the people of this city. Responsible for defeating advanced technology using only ingenuity, bravery, and," he glanced at the newly broke staff set off to the side. "A stick."

Donnie glanced at the staff as well and smiled. "Thanks, sensei," he said sincerely. "Maybe you're right."

"I am," Splinter agreed.

"I guess with proper training, there's nothing better than a wooden stick." A familiar manic smile spread across his face. "Except a laser guided, missile-launching wooden stick!" He picked up the contraption he had been fiddling with previously and held it out proudly.

Suddenly, it started beeping suspensefully. Leo, Raph, and Mikey stopped what they were doing and looked back wearily.

"It's not supposed to do that!" Donnie warned. "Run!"

 _ **Sorry about the lack of updates guys! I got super busy, was involved in a play, then I had baby sitting, and I also dress up as Disney Princesses for little kid birthday parties, and then my dog died :'( I will (hopefully) be better at updating, but school is starting up again soon, so I can't make any promises once I get myself buried in homework, play scripts, and trying to work on four different fanfictions, and original book, and a movie script. So, to answer the few messages/comments I got for this story:**_

 ** _BookRain- Awwww thank you! 3 I'm not a huge fan of Mona Lisa/Raph either (unless it is redone extraordinarily well by a fanfiction author), so I keep banging my head against my desk whenever I see the interactions between Raph and Mona in the new season of TMNT. AND I have to somehow squeeze Tori in there. How the heck am I supposed to do that unless I completely change the story line?! *sigh* But, I have, like, three more books to write until I have to worry about that (if I ever get that far at the pace I'm writing) . Anyway, thank you so much for the review!_**

 ** _DaisyChain- Thank you! That's so sweet! I really am trying to create special, different, relationships between all the turtles, so thank you for noticing! I realized recently that I seem to focous more on Mikey and Raph interactions than Donnie, and Leo, so I'll be working on that. Thank you for noticing! And thanks for the review!_**

 ** _bajy- Thank you for you continuous support and both of your comments! It really does help me to get working on this when people like you are encouraging me. Thank you!_**

 _ **I don't know if you guys know this, but it really does make my entire day whenever I get a comment or review on any of my stories. I literally start grinning and blushing at my phone like an idiot, and my mom keeps asking me what I'm up to or if I have a secret boyfriend. X'D**_

 _ **Alright, I'll try to post again tomorrow. I already have the chapter written, so it's only a matter of having the time to edit it and post it. Nighty Night!**_


	15. Your Face

The bruise on Tori's jaw did not go away that night like she had expected it to. Instead, it had gotten worse; it was now a deep purple lined with yellow.

Apparently Metalhead had hit her harder than she had thought.

Leo was, as usual, the first one to enter the kitchen after Tori that morning. She was lazily stirring a bowl of oatmeal and didn't see him enter.

"What happened to your face!?" Leo blurted. She looked up crankily. The dude hadn't even said good morning yet.

"What happened to your face?" She grumbled back.

Leo crossed his arms, not amused.

"I'm not the one with a bruise the size of-" he stopped and squinted. "The size of Metalhead's fist..."

Tori wanted to squirm, but that would tip Leo off that he was succeeding at making her feel guilty.

"Why didn't you tell anyone you were hurt?" He asked. She avoided eye contact and went back to stirring the oatmeal.

"I didn't think it would still be there in the morning," she admitted quietly. "I thought my healing factor would have kicked in faster."

"Even so, you need to tell someone when you get hurt," he reprimanded sternly. "Even if you can heal faster than the rest of us, we still need to know. Maybe then Donnie or someone could have helped."

She didn't say anything, so he continued, a little gentler. "How often have you done this?"

She shrugged. "I don't get hit very often," she admitted. "Usually it's those stupid laser guns, but those heal in the matter if a few seconds. I didn't think the hit from Metalhead was so bad, and that it would just heal."

Leo stared at the bruise contemplatively. "We'll have Donnie take a look at it after training," he decided.

"Take a look at what?" A voice asked sleepily from the doorway. Leo stepped aside and Donnie, still sleepy and coffee deprived, got a full view of Tori, and his eyes widened.

"What happen to your face!?" Tori groaned.

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After two more exclamations about her face from Mikey and Raph, Tori knew it was time to resolve the problem with a little stage makeup. She carefully applied liquid, then powder, concealer and a little a little blush for color. Then she had no choice but to wear mascara when she realized the concealer made her look like she didn't have any eyelashes. The turtles' reactions to that were almost as comical though.

Raph stared at her for several moments after she exited the bathroom before finally asking, "What the heck is on your face?"

Tori, by this point, was sick of everyone asking about her face.

"It's called make-up," she growled. "It's stuff that human girls wear on their faces when they are trying to look prettier or cover up bruises. Now would everyone stop making remarks about my face!?"

Raph backed up, hands raised in surrender and took note of her eyes. They were not their usual, happy, chocolate brown. The irises were black. He had noticed the color changes before, but he had yet to see this particular shade yet.

"Just one more question," Raph asked, putting his hands down and stepping closer to get a better look. "Have your eyes always changed colors?"

Tori furrow her eyebrows in confusion and her irises started to get lighter again as she forgot about her anger.

"What? My eyes have always been brown."

Raph shook his head. "No, I mean, they're still brown, but when you get angry, they turn black, and when you're sad they turn an amber color. When you were tricking Mikey into being your personal slave- which you still haven't acted on all that much by the way- they were the color of almonds."

Tori sat back and the anger was soon completely gone, replaced by the aforementioned almond brown.

"Why Raph," she teased. "I had no idea you were so intrigued by my eyes. How nice of you to pay so much attention to them!"

Raph immediately felt his cheeks heat up, but he refused to let her know that. "It's kind of hard not to notice when they keep changing," he grumbled. "Maybe that's another side effect of you mutation? Mood reflecting eyes?"

Tori shrugged and they turned back to their usual chocolate brown, the teasing done for the moment. "It could be," she admitted. "I think I was affected in a few other ways. My night vision is clearer than it ever was before, and my nose feels like it's on constant overdrive."

Raph nodded as if he had noticed these things as well. "You also seem to have better hearing," he added. "You pick up on things like April coming for a visit before even Master Splinter does."

Tori nodded. "Yeah. All of my senses seem to be on overdrive all the time."

This, Raph also found intriguing. "Even taste?" He asked.

"Even taste," she agreed. "Fudge tastes even more heavenly and pickles taste- and smell- even more like toxic waste."

"What about touch?" He asked.

This made Tori blush for some reason, her eyes changing yet again, this time to a reddish-brown almost identical to Donnie's.

"Yeah, that's affected too."

Raph raised an eye ridge, intrigued by whatever could make her so bashful.

"How so?" He asked.

"Well," she started slowly. "When my adrenaline is running high, like in the middle of a fight, I can kind of turn it off so I don't feel the pain so much. But other times, like when I brush elbows with someone or..." she cleared her throat and the blush got even worse. "You know how a cat sometimes acts like they need to be stroked and pet or they might die?" She asked, trying a new approach.

"Yeah..." he had run into his fair share of cats on the surface begging for a pat or a scratch behind the ears.

"Well it's kind of like that, but not to such an extreme," she explained. "An example would be that time last week, when we were coming back from fighting the Kraang and I was upset, and you patted me on the back and then..." she coughed in embarrassment again. "My brain kind of turned off when you gave me that little massage," she admitted. "I never used to be like that, but suddenly it was like nothing else in the world mattered. It wasn't until Mikey spoke that I realized what I was doing."

Raph nodded slowly as understanding settled in, then he smirked.

"So I made your brain turn off?"

She scowled playfully and was about to shoot back something equally sassy, when Leo entered the hall in front of the bathroom Tori had exited not so long ago.

"Uh, hi," he said, glancing from one to the other. "Having a bit of a powwow in front of the bathroom?"

And then the almond brown returned with a vengeance. "He was just telling me how pretty my eyes are." Tori said cheekily. Raph sputtered in denial as Leo burst out laughing.

"Well Raph, you can stare soulfully into her eyes later," he said. "Because now, we have training to do."

Mikey and Donnie were already waiting in the dojo when the last of Splinter's students entered. The sensei's eyes widened at the sight of the not-quite covered bruise on her jaw.

"Tori," he said in surprise. "What happened to your face?"

And with that, Tori's bad mood was back.

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Training did not go as Tori had hoped. She had lost to Leo (really it had been about time, as he was a trained ninja and she was not; why it had taken him the better part of a month to claim victory was beyond her), took an unintentional blow to her already throbbing jaw from Mikey, and the hard work did nothing to sooth her growing anger and frustration.

She was about to sneak off and maybe go for a walk up top, or visit April, when Donnie called out to her.

"Hey Tori! Hold up!" He drew up along side her and she stopped walking.

"I'd like to run a few tests on you if that's alright with you," he said. "You know, check out your super senses and figure out where your super healing hasn't been triggered yet."

She almost said no, but then again, getting rid of the bruise rather than venting about it sound pretty good right about then.

"Alright," she said. "But on one condition."

"No needles?" He guessed.

"And Bingo was his name-oh."

Not ten minutes later, Tori was hooked up to at least twenty wires all leading back to a computer monitor that was showing the neurons traveling to, and through, her brain.

"So, what is this supposed to be able to tell us?" Raph asked. He, Leo, and Mikey were sitting by the far wall (where Donnie was sure they couldn't interfere) watching the whole thing as they had nothing better to do.

"Well as you can see," Donnie said pointing at a number in the corner of the screen. "The neurons in her brain are firing at about 400 times per second."

Raph shrugged. "Yeah, so?"

"That's twice as fast as the normal human." Behind him, Tori splattered in surprise, but Leo, Raph, and Mikey continued to stare at him with blank faces.

"Which means... what exactly?" Raph prompted.

"It means Tori has gained the ability to process things like touch, sound, smell, taste, and sight at a much rapider pace. She can experience certain aspects of her surroundings in a way no other living being could even dream of doing!" Donnie explained excitedly.

"For example, the average conscious brain can process about twenty frames per second, and television runs at twenty-five frames per second. In some television shows, a single frame can be slipped in per second and the normal human brain will process the image subconsciously, but not consciously. Because of this, if they flash a picture of Pepsi, you won't notice, but you might have the sudden urge to drink Pepsi."

"As interesting as that is Donnie," Leo interrupted, "What does any of this have to do with Tori?"

"I was just getting to that," he deadpanned, then continued. "Because Tori's receptors are moving so much faster than even ours, she could consciously see that Pepsi that no one else would. She can perceive things we would never even know was there. It's probably why she was able to beat Leo and Raph so many times in training without any previous training. She was simply able to react quicker."

Tori perked up momentarily when she heard the approaching footsteps of April, and was about to tell Donnie, but he wasn't done nerding out yet.

"In addition, her senses actually are in overdrive, and she has super processors to evaluate them in a microsecond. Basically, Tori is a human supercomputer with the potential to process an aspect of our world, a reality perhaps, that we may never even know about!"

Stunned looks greeted Donnie and he finally felt satisfied in knowing they- or at least most of them- understood.

"So, she's a super ninja?" Mikey asked.

"Kunoichi," Donnie corrected. "An no, she's more like a superhuman training to be a kunoichi."

"Dude!"" Mikey exclaimed excitedly. "You're a super soldier! You're the Captain America of ninjitsu!"

Tori grinned. "Yeah, I guess air kind of am. I still have a ways to go before I can call myself a kunoichi though."

"So, you figured out Tori is a super-sensor, but we still don't know why her healing hasn't kicked in," Raph pointed out.

"That's a little less exciting," Donnie admitted, "but a little easier to understand too. She is still healing remarkably quick for a bruise obtained only yesterday; it looks like a four of five day old bruise in its last stages of coloration before fading away. It's just a little slower because her body did not register it as an immediate threat to her health, and so in order to save energy, her body is moving a little slower."

April chose that moment to enter.

"Hey guys; hey To-" April stopped in her tracks and gaped at Tori, then before anyone could stop her she asked, "What happened to your face!?"

 _ **I did it! Yay! I new chapter, just as I promised. The babies that I am sitting are no awake yet, so I'm taking advantage of that before hey wake up. I should have another one tomorrow, but don't hold me to that! I have a princess gig and a fun run to attend, so my only free time might be spent sleeping and eating ^-^'**_

 _ **BookRain- I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! :D That's really a way to brighten my morning ^-^**_


	16. Never Say Xever

**"Whoa, sweet blades," Tori said from behind Raph. The said turtle jumped in his seat and almost slit his palm open on the aforementioned blade.**

 **"Don't do that," he sighed we he realized his hand was fine. "I might have accidentally stabbed myself... or you!"**

 **"Sorry," she said absently, still staring at the small Japanese sword in his hands. "I thought you heard me."**

 **"Your a super-sensor," he reminded her, going back to polishing the blade. "Everything is louder to you, so you make an unconscious effort to be quieter; or at least, that's what Donnie said."**

 **Tori hummed in agreement and went uncharacteristically quiet. The silence quickly got on his nerves, and the knowledge that she was hovering over his shoulder was making him feel claustrophobic.**

 **"Was there something you needed?" He asked finally.**

 **"Hmm?" She asked, then snapped back to attention. "Oh, right. I came here for our extra training exercises, but then you looked busy."**

 **Raph nodded. "My punishment from Master Splinter for losing my temper... again..." He stopped rubbing the side of the blade with the special cloth and examined his work. "Overall not the worst punishment ever. We can get to training after I finish the other wakizashi. "**

 **Tori cocked her head and Raph was suddenly reminded of a curious cat. "Is that what it's called?" She asked.**

 **"Yeah," he nodded, setting the weapon aside. "It's a little smaller than the katana, but a lot of the time, ancient Japanese warriors would carry one of each. A katana for their dominant hand and a wakizashi to defend their non-dominant side. When Leo tried it though, he said he felt off balance, so he gave up on the wakizashi and started using just katanas. I tried using them for a while, but it just didn't seem to fit me. That was before I started training with my sai."**

 **Tori soaked in the new knowledge like a sponge and continued observing the sword with interest.**

 **"It a very elegant weapon," she commented. "May I?" Raph glanced at her and she quickly amended with, "Look at it I mean. I've never seen one other than on the internet or behind the glass at a museum."**

 **Raph shrugged and held the hilt out to her. "Sure, just don't smudge it. Otherwise Splinter will make me start over again."**

 **She took the blade gently and held the worn leather handle with care.**

 **"Really nice balance," she observed and he nodded.**

 **"Yeah, that's how it was made to be. Balanced and quicker than the katana, but nowhere near as hardy in most circumstances."**

 **She hummed again in acknowledgment, studied it for a bit longer, then handed it back. "What other weapons do you have in here?" she asked.**

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 **Later that evening found Tori walking down the darkening streets with April. The redhead had just finished her first lesson in ninjitsu and was ready to celebrate. As in turns out, while Tori was out getting groceries (and got lost for several hours as a result), she and the guys had had an adventure with a genius scientist turned mutant monkey, and a man who had given himself psychic abilities. Tori was bummed to have missed the whole thing, but she didn't much feel like getting beat up by a chimpanzee after the day she had.**

 **She was keeping a sharp ear on the guys who were following somewhere behind them, but the only indication that they were there was the occasional groan of a fire escape ladder, or a change in wind speed. April was having a harder time keeping track of them though, and mistook their silence for falling behind.**

 **"You guys want to speed it up a little?" She asked, turning speak in their general direction (where she had assumed they were hiding.)**

 **"Are you saying turtles are slow?" Donnie asked from in front of them where he was hiding by a ticket booth. Somehow they had managed to get ahead of April and Tori.**

 **"That's a hurtful stereotype," Mikey whined from the other side of the ticket booth where he was crouched beside Raph.**

 **"Trust us, April," Leo said from where he had magically appeared behind a support beam. "We are better off keeping a low profile. We find people treat us better when they don't know we exist."**

 **"Sorry," April grinned sheepishly. "I'm just so excited to get you out of the sewer for a change."**

 **"What are you talking about?" Raph asked. "We go out all the time."**

 **"Yeah but** **tonight** **you're going to do something besides hitting people," April stated happily.**

 **Raph's shoulders dropped. "Aww..."**

 **Tori tried not to laugh. The dude really needed to take a chill pill sometimes.**

 **"Don't worry!" April amended. "You're going to love this noodle place I found."**

 **Tori blinked in surprise. "Is that where we're going?" The redhead had refused to share her plans earlier, claiming it would be better as a surprise.**

 **"And you're sure we'll be welcome?" Donnie asked nervously.**

 **"Oh, yeah," April said confidently. "Mr. Murakami doesn't care what you look like. In fact, he won't even know what you look like. He's blind!"**

 **Mikey perked up. "Awesome!" He cheered. For that, he earned a smack to the back of his head from Raph for his insensitivity. "Ow! I mean, for us obviously..."**

 **As he sky darkened even further, and the area became more rural, the turtles had to put less of an effort into hiding and were able to walk with April and Tori. Eventually, they came upon a traditional style Japanese restaurant, but it didn't look as empty and friendly as April had explained it would be. Crashes and grunts of pain could be heard emanating from inside. Tori could make out the silhouette of a thin man throwing a chair across the room and the sound of breaking China met her ears.**

 **"Oh, no..." April gasped.**

 **"Who are those creeps?" Donnie asked.**

 **"The Purple Dragons," April spat venomously. "They think they own the streets around here."**

 **Tori smirked and cracked her knuckles. "Looks like we'll have to set them straight."**

 **"So much for not hitting people** **tonight** **." Leo mused.**

 **Raph grinned, looking all too gleeful despite the situation. "Oh, well."**

 **All four of the turtles (plus Tori) burst into the small, trashed, restaurant as Mikey shouted his trademark "Booyakasha!"**

 **There were four men inside, and one of them was wearing a pair of round, black, sunglasses. Tori assumed he was the man, Mr. Murakami, that April had been talking about. They all looked up at the unexpected intrusion, and once the brains of the three tattooed men caught up to what they were seeing, their eyes just about bugged out. Tori couldn't blame them. Four mutant turtles showing up to save the day** ** _was_** **rather unexpected.**

 **"All right," Leo said. "Let him go. You don't want any trouble."**

 **"We, on the other hand, do," Raph added, grinning maniacally.**

 **The skinniest Purple Dragon was the first to find his voice again. "Whoa, those guys were serious. There really are giant turtles!"**

 **Tori blinked.** ** _'Uh oh,_** **' she thought.**

 **"You've heard of us?" Mikey asked excitedly. "Dudes, we're famous!"**

 **"That's bad!" Donnie reminded him.**

 **Mikey deflated a little. "Oh. Right."**

 **The lead Purple Dragon guy bravely (or, more likely, stupidly) stepped forward. "Whatever you are, this neighborhood is ours," he proclaimed. "So why don't you slither back to the ocean you came from?"**

 **Tori almost rolled his eyes at his pitiful attempt at a jab.**

 **"Actually, we're freshwater turtles," Donnie retorted. "I suspect that we're derived from the diamondback terrapin - but it's possible we're a common box-"**

 **"How about we beat them,** ** _then_** **give them a free lesson on turtle anatomy?" Tori interrupted.**

 **The leader of the P.D. didn't seem to like that idea. "Get 'em!" He shouted.**

 **Everyone broke into a flurry of motion and seemed to flow in slow motion. Two seconds in, Tori knew the Purple Dragons were way outmatched.**

 **Mustache guy ran at Leo with a broom, but Leo was ready for him and ducked the first two swings before bending over to give Mikey some leverage to kick him in the face, then again in the chest. Mustache proved to be resilient though and soon got his baring back. He charged at Mikey this time, but Raph took over, and proved to be to big a force for him to handle- a simple flick to the face was enough to knock him back.**

 **Meanwhile, Leo moved on to challenge the leader of the Purple Dragons and Tori took on Tubby with Donnie and Mikey. The dude was a joke though ,and Tori felt that she didn't even have to do anything. He basically walked into their fists until he passed out momentarily on the floor.**

 **April crawled along the side of the wall as the fighting continued, successfully making it to Mr. Murakami, who was still unconscious on the floor. She peaked over the counter the see the guy's (and Tori's) progress. She looked up just in time to see Mikey taking a bite of soup and Tubby about to strike him over the head.**

 **Thinking quickly, she used the lid of a discarded pot as a frisbee to take him out. Mikey blinked in confusion before glancing back at the once more unconscious adversary.**

 **"Thanks, April!" He chirped before finally taking a bite.**

 **"You're welcome," she breathed, then proceeded to help an unsteady Mr. Murakami into the back room where it would be safe.**

 **By this point, Donnie was successfully taking of Tubby (who was basically just throwing his weight around), Leo was easily avoiding getting hacked up by a butcher's knife that the skinny dude had picked up, and Raph and Tori were taking on Mustache.**

 **"You know what?," Tori said casually kicking him in the chest into Raph's awaiting fist. "I almost feel bad for these guys."**

 **"For what?" Raph asked, hitting the dude back her way. "Being complete losers?"**

 **She hit him in the side of the head with a frying pan, and he was out and down for the count.**

 **"Yup."**

 **They both looked around to see if anyone else needed help, but Donnie and Mikey had easily taken care of Tubby. All that was left was Skinny and Leo, who just seemed to be toying with the significantly weaker man. Eventually though, he got bored and took him out in one fell swoop of the leg. He held the dude up by the scruff of the shirt and was about to pummel him when he hesitated. Tori swore the P.D. was going to wet his pants.**

 **After a moment, Leo let go of the man and stepped back.**

 **"Get out of here," he growled.**

 **Skinny grinned and walked away, brushing off imaginary dust.**

 **"Come on," he said to his slowly recovering companions. "Let's go." He turned to look back at them with what Tori assumed was** ** _supposed_** **to be a threatening glare. "This ain't over, greeny!" He warned, before running out with his handing in the air.**

 **Donnie blinked. "Greeny? Really?" He snorted. "I wonder how many brain cells he put to work on that."**

 **Raph turned sharply on Leo. "You just let him go? What the heck was that?"**

 **Leo winced. "They weren't exactly a threat," he said. "They'd had enough."**

 **"Dude!" Raph shouted in exasperation. "They were beating up a blind guy! There's no "enough"! Now they'll think we're wimps and we don't have the guts to finish the job!"**

 **Tori frowned and stepped forward. "As true as that might be Raph, we can't allow ourselves to think the same way they do," she said. "Then we're no different than they are."**

 **Raph spun on her in disbelief and Tori almost put her hands up in a defensive stance before reminding herself that Raph wouldn't intentionally hurt her. "No different?" He exploded. "We'd be doing the** ** _right_** **thing!"**

 **Tori crossed her arms stubbornly and refused to back down. "They were beating up a blind guy," she conceded. "You were beating up a twig guy."**

 **Raph smirked unexpectedly at the thought of how whimpy the man was. "Well, you're right there."**

 **April chose that moment to re-enter with Mr. Murakami still leaning heavily on her shoulder. "Wow, that was great, you guys!" She said excitedly.**

 **Donnie perked up instantly at her presence. "Thanks, April!" he all but gushed. "Did you see when I caught the one guy and flipped him onto the counter? Did it look cool? I bet it looked cool..." He looked at April hopefully.**

 **"The coolest," April agreed with a strained smile.**

 **Donnie deflated at the obvious lie. "You didn't see it, did you?"**

 **April winced. "No, I did not."**

 **"My friends," Mr. Murakami said slowly. "I'm indebted to you. Please, allow me to make you a meal. Free of charge."**

 **Tori felt Raph finally relax a little. "I think we can allow that," he said.**

 **Mr. Murakami smiled gratefully. "What is your favorite dish?"**

 **As expected, all four of the turtles shouted, "Pizza!"**

 **Tori smiled wryly. "I think I'll just have Shabu Shabu please."**

 **Watching Mr. Murakami cook was something else. Nothing but years of practice could have prepared him for slicing up vegetables and slices of meat as fast as he did- without being able to see any of it not less!**

 **"Murakami-san," Donnie said in awe. "That was awesome!"**

 **Mikey agreed adamantly. "You're like a ninja but for food!" He said.**

 **Mr. Murakami smiled gratefully and set down rows of pot stickers in front of each of the turtles. "Pizza gyoza!" He announced proudly, before handing April and Tori their own meals.**

 **April wrinkled her nose. "Pizza gyoza?"**

 **The guys all glanced at each other nervously before shrugging and trying the new food all at once. Simultaneously, all of their eyes widened in something similar to her own reaction to fudge.**

 **"Wow!" Mikey squealed.**

 **"Delish!" Raph agreed, taking another bite.**

 **"It's like I got a one-way ticket to Flavorville!" Donnie said.**

 **"This is really good too, you know," April said, gesturing to her bowl of soup. The guys stared at her for a moment and went back to eating their gouda.**

 **Tori smiled and returned to her own delicious meal, but was quick to notice that Leo still looked troubled.**

 **"Uh, Murakami-san," he asked uncomfortably, "Do the Purple Dragons come around a lot?"**

 **Mr. Murakami sighed heavily. "Yes. They demand protection money but I refuse to pay. They will surely return."**

 **Raph spared Leo a scathing look. "Well, they wouldn't if somebody hadn't wimped out," he muttered.**

 **Tori scowled I'm his direction. "What Raph MEANS to say, is that we'll make sure to swing by here more often to make sure they don't come back. When they realize your friends are bigger than theirs, they'll get the message and stay away."**

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 **Tori's mood gradually declined as the night went on, and Raph continued to make snide remarks at Leo's expense. Honestly she couldn't see what the big deal was. They got the job done and helped a blind dude without bloodshed.**

 **When they returned to the lair, Tori picked up her discarded copy of 'Jurassic Park' from where she had left it on the stone bench earlier. She curled up in a secluded beanbag chair, and settled down to read.**

 **Donnie settled on the purple bean bag chair next to her, and opened an abandoned comic book. On a concrete bench nearby, Mikey sat down and started flicking through his own. Leo took to the punching bag to blow off some steam, and Raph was left to his own devices.**

 **Raph strolled out of his room and saw Leo pack a few good punches on the bag and smirked.**

 **"Whoa, whoa, Leo," He said, coming up behind the bag. "I think he's had enough. You better let him go."**

 **Tori looked up from her book and wearily watched the scene unfold from her seat. Mikey and Donnie seemed to tune in as well.**

 **"I get it," Leo snapped, crossing his arms. "You're making fun of me for not mercilessly pummeling a helpless man."**

 **"Yes, I am," the red banded terrapin said bluntly. "You showed weakness. Those guys only understand one language."**

 **"Chinese?" Mikey guessed allowed.**

 **Raph sighed in exasperation. "No; Fists!"**

 **Mikey wiggled his toes at his older brother. "What about feet?"**

 **Raph's shoulders slumped in exaggerated acceptance and he sighed again. "They understand feet."**

 **"That would make them bilingual," Donnie pointed out.**

 **"Trilingual, if you add in the fact that they were speaking English the entire time," Tori added.**

 **Raph looked like he was going to blow a gasket. "Argh!" He screamed at the ceiling (giving Tori and Donnie a chance for fist bump). "The point is, we can't go soft on them!"**

 **Tori's eye flicked to Master Splinter as the wizened rat entered the room.**

 **"To show mercy is not soft," he reprimanded. "It is a sign of true strength."**

 **Raph's shoulders slumped. "But, sensei," he sighed. "They're criminals. This is war."**

 **Splinter shook his head. "A Daimyo of the 16th century once said, 'In times of peace, never forget the possibility of war. In times of war, never forget compassion." Tori considered the statement, then mentally filed that away in her brain under 'Awesome quotes to live by.'**

 **Raph didn't appear to be nearly as impressed. "I'm guessing that guy lost a lot of wars," he muttered to himself.**

 **Splinter's eyes hardened and swung his staff around towards Raph's head. So alarmed was the turtle, that he didn't even have time to brace himself, only having time to gasp right before it stopped an inch from his face.**

 **"You see?" Splinter said somewhat smugly. "Mercy." Then he hit Raph in the arm with the staff.**

 **"Ow!" He rubbed his shoulder ruefully. "Okay, look. Compassion is great. But the Purple Dragons are not going to leave Murakami alone," he explained.**

 **"So we'll track down the Dragons and make sure they got the message," Leo said. "And if they didn't, we'll send them one." He punch his fist into his hand in a threatening gesture. "Special delivery."**

 **Raph raised an eye ridge. "Was that meant to sound tough or stupid?"**

 **Tori blinked incredulously. "Wait, you guys are going to go** ** _looking_** **for trouble?"**

 **"Not trouble," Raph smirked. "Just the Purple Dragons."**

 **Tori ignored the slam and sputtered in disbelief. "But that would make us no better than them!" She shouted. "Why go looking for a fight when there doesn't need to be one?"**

 **"And how are we gonna track someone down when we can't talk to anybody?" Donnie added.**

 **Leo waved off the question. "I say, if we want to make sure they stay away from Mr. Murakami, we'll have to bring the fight to them."**

 **Tori looked like she wanted to argue, but saw the stubborn set of his shoulders and realized it was pointless to fight this losing battle.**

 **"You're the leader..." she sighed.**

 **·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·**

 **The next evening found Tori crouched on a rooftop between Donnie and Mikey.**

 **"I still think this is a bad idea..." Tori muttered, but no one paid her any attention.**

 **"April said this was the place," Leo said, looking down at a tattoo shop.**

 **"Cool!" Mikey sighed. "Can we get tattoos? I want to get one of my face on my face. It'll be like I'm wearing a mask, and the mask is me!" He punched the air excitedly before striking a "cool" pose. And everyone just stared at him, not quite sure how to react. Mikey took this as awed silence. "I just blew your minds, right?"**

 **Tori winced. "Totally... not..."**

 **"You know they use needles for that," Donnie said. A tinkling of bells sounded from the tattoo shop signaling that someone was coming out.**

 **"Can it, dorks," Raph said. "There he is."**

 **They followed the Purple Dragon- the skinny dude whom Leo had let go the night before- a short distance to a run down and abandoned Fortune Cookie Factory.**

 **"Alright," Leo said. "One three, we'll jump in through these windows and scare the living daylights out of them. Then, we send them a message they won't forget, and when they get it, we leave. Job well done."**

 **Tori almost objected again, but knew there was no point and just nodded with the rest of them.**

 **The way they all simultaneously smashed through the thin factory windows couldn't have been performed more perfectly if they had tried. Tori was sure it would have been enough to make most action movie producers cry tears of joy. They all landed heroically in fighting stances and Tori prided herself on not falling of her face or cutting her eye with falling shards of glass.**

 **"Freeze, dirt bags!" Leo shouted (his obviously rehearsed line), before blanching. "Uh-oh..."**

 **There, speaking to Skinny, was Chris Bradford and his equally threatening partner.**

 **"I think we can find them ourselves," the man said to Skinny wryly.**

 **Tori shot a glare in Leo and Raph's direction. "Would you prefer I say 'I told you so' now, or later?"**

 **"Oh, man. This is awkward," Mikey groaned, uncharacteristically somber. "It's Chris Bradford, my ex-friend. And... that other guy."**

 **"The name is Xever," the man said, taking a confident step forward and flipping out twin switch blades. "So you don't forget, I'll write it on your shells with these."**

 **Tori whistled in appreciation. "Sweet blades..."**

 **This earned her incredulous looks from the turtles.**

 **"What?" She asked defensively. "Am I not allowed to appreciate a pretty set of blades, when I have nothing but my bare hands and whatever junk I can find on the floor?"**

 **The next few minutes were a terrifying blur of motion. Tori was unable to find a suitable weapon in the entire factory, and had to rely solely on her street fighting abilities and the skills she had accumulated in her training with Splinter and Raph. It wasn't so bad when she had one of the guys with her to watch her back and give her a hand, but when she suddenly found herself facing Tubby and Moustache, both of whom now had impressive knives of their own-** ** _alone_** **\- she knew she was dead meat. The feeling of dread increased tenfold when black clad Foot ninjas broke in through the brick wall.**

 **No, not dread, horror. It was creeping through her veins like ice. She was completely surrounded from all sides, and her closest allies were down for the count on the other side of the factory. In all the fights she had partaken in so far, she had never felt to vulnerable or alone.**

 **"Turtles, fall back!" She heard Leo shout. She tried to run to them, and to relative safety, but Tubby and a Foot ninja stepped in her line of retreat. She was surrounded.**

 **"We're giving up?" she heard Raph shout. "Again? You kidding me?"**

 **"Yes, it's all part of my hilarious "let's all live" routine." Leo snapped back.**

 **Tori panicked when she saw them both making their way to the nearest window- without her.**

 **"Can someone help me please?" She all but screeched. Two of the Foot came down on her then, their moves as quick as lighting. She kept pace with them, using her newfound "super processing" to her advantage, but she was against two highly trained ninjas, and she only had two arms to defend herself with.**

 **One of them manage to strike her in the nose, and the blinding pain made her eyes water as she stumbled back into a brick wall.**

 **As she sat up and tried to blink away the tears, she heard Raph's tell-tale battle roar. He didn't even bother pulling out his sai, just bulldozing through the throng of Foot ninjas like an angry rhino. He stopped by her side, picked her up bridal style, and kept out the nearest window, Mikey and Donnie hot on his heals.**

 **"Hey!" Tori heard Xever shout out the window. "Stay and fight, you cold-blooded cowards!"**

 **An alarmingly canine growl resonated deep in in Raph's chest and Tori started in surprise, but Raph didn't stop running, only pausing briefly to set her down once they were several blocks away.**

 **·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·**

 **Back at the lair, Mikey, Leo, and Raph slouched over the furniture dejectedly, while Donnie checked on Tori's nose which had only just stopped bleeding.**

 **"Well, it's not broken," he said, throwing away the bloody gauze and tissues. "Not anymore anyway."**

 **"Yippy," she muttered and wondered if the blood would wash out of her leather jacket.**

 **Raph sighed. "Man, could that fight have been any more embarrassing?"**

 **"Sure," Mikey said. "We could have been hit in the face with pies."**

 **Tori shook her head and offered the youngest turtle a half smile.**

 **"We should never have retreated," Raph grumbled.**

 **Leo looked at himself sharply. "It's called fighting smart, Raph. The Purple Dragons have Bradford and Xever on their side now. Last time, we barely beat those guys."**

 **Raph stood and Tori was distantly surprised that he still had the energy to pick a fight.**

 **"Yeah, because they're willing to fight to the finish," Raph snarled, jabbing a finger aggressively into Leo's plastron. "The only way to beat them is to be just as ruthless as they are."**

 **Splinter once more chose that opportune moment to enter the room. "Raphael, this Xever can cross lines that you won't," he said sternly. "This may make him dangerous, but it does not make him strong."**

 **"But Xever wins fights," Raph argued. "Isn't that what matters? And he never shows anyone mercy."**

 **Tori felt her own temper began to lick dangerously close to the surface. "Why do you want to be like Xever so much?" She snapped. "What has he ever done that's so great?"**

 **Raph swiftly turned on her, but she stubbornly stood her ground. "I just said he wins-"**

 **"Fights, yeah I heard you," she interrupted. "We will win the war though, and we can't do that by being just like him! Or Bradford! OR the Shredder! We can't fight fire with fire."**

 **Raph growled again. "We totally could have taken them down if Lame-o-nadaro hadn't-"**

 **Finally the anger and fear that Tori had felt that night could not be bottled any longer. "If** ** _LEONARDO_** **hadn't called for us to retreat, I'd be dead right now!" She snapped and the room went still. "I was fighting two armed Purple Dragons, alone, without a weapon! And that was before the Foot came and surrounded me!**

 **"I might be able to win a few sparring matches in training here and there, but how am I supposed to defend myself when I'm faced with a dozen highly trained ninjas and two angry thugs? Did you ever think about that?" She was pacing angrily in front of Raph now, jerking back and forth like a giant aggravated cat. He vaguely realized her eyes were not black like they would normally be when she was angry. They were hazel. "Or what about the way Bradford singlehandedly took down Donnie and Mikey in a few seconds flat? Did you stop to think about anyone else, or were you too battle hungry?"**

 **She finally turned back to Raph who was stunned to say the least, but he quickly regained his composure. "You were fine, we would have helped you. Besides, I got you out of there no sweat."**

 **"That's not the point!" She shouted. "I thought you guys were going to leave me!"**

 **Silence met her remark, and she realized that she was trembling violently.**

 ** _'Great_** **,' She thought.** ** _'Now they've seen me freak out and now I'm shaking like a freaking Chihuahua_** **.'**

 **"Are you okay?" Mikey asked quietly. She looked down at where he was perched on a beanbag chair.**

 **"I'm fine," she managed to say, but not without a slight tremble. "Just... pent up adrenaline." She cast Raph another glare. "Happens when I get mad at bee-brains who don't have any common sense or honor."**

 **With that, she promptly spun on her heals and started walking towards the turnstiles.**

 **"Where are you going?" Leo called out.**

 **"For a run," she said without pausing or turning around. "Need to burn off this adrenaline ,and you don't have a treadmill."**

 **Leo stood to follow, or perhaps convince her that a trip to the surface without an escort might be dangerous, but Master Splinter held him back. When he looked up at his sensei curiously, he shook his head.**

 **"Victoria needs to calm down. She will not get herself into trouble, or do anything unwise." Leo nodded and the room was dipped back into silence.**

 **Raph didn't dare bring up the conversation again that night. He considered the newest eye color and what it could mean. He didn't have to ponder long though. Hazel was fear.**

 **·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·**

 **Tori didn't return for three hours. Leo stayed up to wait for his newest teammate in the kitchen while everyone else had retreated to their respected rooms.**

 **When she entered the kitchen for a glass of water, she was sweaty and her hair was frizzy, but she looked considerably calmer.**

 **"Did you have a good run?" He asked. She nodded and downed a glass of water and refilled it.**

 **"I'm sorry you got stuck in that situation at the warehouse," he continued. "I should have realized you were a little out of your depth with those guys. Next time, we'll make sure you're better prepared."**

 **Tori nodded again, still not meeting his gaze. She put her empty glass in the dishwasher, and made to leave the kitchen, but Leo gently grabbed her by the elbow before she could retreat.**

 **"We wouldn't have left you," he said gently. "However it may have seemed** **tonight** **with how scared you were, we had no intention of leaving you to fight by yourself. Raph and I had the full intention of getting you out if there."**

 **Tori didn't say anything, but nodded one more time before quietly making her way to the bathroom.**

 **Raph wasn't asleep yet. After Tori's "Freak out," as Mikey had solemnly named it, he couldn't help but feel a little guilty. He hadn't really been paying attention to the others. He knew she was back when he heard the shower faucet running in the bathroom and waited quietly. Glancing occasionally at the blankets piled neatly by the hammock. After a few minutes, the water stopped running. A few minutes later he heard the bathroom door click open, and he saw her shadow under the door. She paused there for a moment, then continued on to her own room.**

 **She didn't come back.**

 **She stayed in her room, alone, that night.**

 **She didn't sleep.**

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 **The next day was unusually tense. Tori went about her usual business with dark circles under her eyes, and took a three hour nap in the middle of lair at about** **4:00** **. From her spot on a beanbag chair, she could hear Mikey in the kitchen, Donnie in his lab, Raph in his room, and Leo watching Space Heroes. The sounds of the turtles going about their business was oddly soothing, and no one disturbed her.**

 **She was awoken when Donnie came running out of his lab shouting something about an urgent call from April.**

 **"What?" Tori asked, sitting up groggily and rubbing the sleep from her eyes.**

 **"I just got a call from April!" He repeated. "She said something bad happened and that we need to meet her at Murakami's."**

 **"Well, it should be getting dark out soon," Leo said. "If we leave now and travel by sewer, it should be dark enough to cover us by the time we get there."**

 **They all nodded in agreement and took off. Raph pretended not to be bothered by the obvious cold shoulder he was getting from Tori the whole way there, but it was hard to ignore.**

 **April was pacing nervously outside Murakami's by the time they got there.**

 **"April, what's wrong?" Donnie asked.**

 **April lead them inside. "It's Murakami," she said worriedly, and they took in the abandoned restaurant and damaged furniture. "Someone took him and left this." She gestured to a note stuck to the wall with a very familiar switchblade.**

 **Mikey, obviously not sensing the ominous feeling that something was wrong, was the first to speak up. "Sweet! Free knife!"**

 **Donnie rolled his eyes. "The note, dummy."**

 **The purple banded turtle pulled the note from its place on the wall and read it aloud.**

 **"No more running. If you want the old man, meet us on the roof of the fortune cookie factory."**

 **"This is Xever's blade," Tori murmured, pulling it out if the wall and examining it. "It was obviously left for us."**

 **"Well, what are we waiting for?" Raph jumped in. "Let's bust in there and save Murakami."**

 **"Not so fast" Leo said sternly. "Think, Raphael."**

 **"There's two words that don't usually go together," Donnie said snidely.**

 **Tori rolled her eyes. "** ** _Tell_** **me about it..."**

 **Raph tried not to look hurt by the comment, but Leo continued as if he hadn't heard them. "This is obviously a trap."**

 **"Well, what choice do we have?" Raph asked impatiently.**

 **Leo considered for a moment. "Maybe we do need to think more like Xever"**

 **Tori's jaw dropped. "** ** _WHAT_** **!?"**

 **Donnie squirmed uncomfortably as well. "But master Splinter said-"**

 **"I know," Leo interrupted. "But Xever crossed the line dragging Murakami into this. He's got to learn that we can cross the line too." He cracked his knuckles. "No more Mr. Nice-Turtle."**

 **Raph pumped his fist in the air. "Yes! I never liked Mr. Nice turtle."**

 **Tori sighed. "I did..."**

 **·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·~·**

 **Ten minutes later** **, Tori and the turtles were on the same rooftop they had been on just the night before, looking down at the same tattoo parlor, but this time, their target was in the Downtown Athletic Club.**

 **"Okay, he's strong, so speed and stealth are essential," Leo reminded them all. "Okay, everybody know the plan?" Raph, Donnie, and Tori nodded resolutely and Leo turned to the youngest. "Mikey?"**

 **Mikey grinned. "Yes."**

 **"Are you sure?" Leo pressed.**

 **"Yes," Mikey said again, unconvincingly.**

 **Leo didn't look fooled for a second. "Tell me what it is."**

 **Mikey thought hard for several moments before shrugging and grinning up at them sheepishly. "Um maybe we should go over it one more time?"**

 **Leo sighed and explained the plan to Mikey one more time. Tori nervously shuffled from one foot to another, and her discomfort did not escape Donnie's attention.**

 **"Are you okay?" He asked. "You're acting kind of jittery."**

 **She stopped moving- for two seconds.**

 **"Sorry, I just have a bad feeling about this... again..."**

 **He smiled sympathetically. "So do I. I'm sure it will be fine though..."**

 **They all straightened to attention when the front door to the Downtown Athletic Club opened and Bradford stepped out into the open. They all jumped tomato position and their kidnapping mission began.**

 **Bradford was obviously aware of their presence the moment he closed to door and spun sharply to confront Raph. He did not, however, notice Leo dropping down on him from above. Together they brought Bradford down hard and Mikey rushed in to tie his hands with a length of rope while Tori got his feet. Donnie slipped a strip of duct tape onto his mouth, muffling his shouts of surprise and anger. That done, Mikey forced Bradford to kneel on a garbage can lid, and Raph brought the rest of the bin down over him. Leo and Mikey quickly and efficiently tied up the makeshift cage with chains and locked it tight.**

 **They all stepped back to examine their work, and Tori felt a terrible, guilty, churning in her stomachs, like she had just aided in a crime.**

 **Leo didn't seem nearly as perturbed. "Gentlemen- and Tori- welcome to the other side of the line," he said proudly. The churning got worse. When she exchanged a look with Donnie, she knew he was feeling the same.**

 **"Now I'm definitely going to need a tat," Mikey said, earning a swat from Raph. "Ow!"**

 **Raph bent down and Mikey helped him to lift Bradford onto his shell. "Dang, this sucker's heavy," the red-banded terrapin grunted. Bradford shifted his weight within the confined of the garbage can and the entire thing fell off of Raph's shell, thudded to the ground, rolled into a wall and came to a stop, pained grunts emitted all the while.**

 **Mikey winced. "Sorry," he called.**

 **"Don't apologize to him," Raph scoffed.**

 **Mikey looked back at the silver garbage tin. "I mean- sorry I didn't drop you harder!"**

 **Raph nodded in approval. "There you go."**

 **Tori frowned in disapproval and couldn't ignore the bad vibe she was getting from the whole situation. "I** ** _really_** **don't like this..." She said, a little louder than the last time.**

 **Raph rolled his eyes. "Yeah, we heard you the last fifty times you said that."**

 **Tori scowled. "Did you? Then how many more times do I have to say it before it makes it into your thick skull?"**

 **Much to Tori's irritation, Raph chose to simply ignored her and gave up on trying to carry Bradford, opting to roll the can along in front of him as he ran.**

 **"Cozy in there?" He asked. Bradford groaned. "Good."**

 **As they neared the fortune cookie factory, they slowed down and peeked around the corner, looking for Xever or Purple Dragons.**

 **"Uh-oh," Donnie said, looking up at the roof. "You guys, look."**

 **From one of the overhanging tears on the roof, Mr. Murakami hung by a thin rope, and above him, standing like he had won a prize, was Xever.**

 **"Dude, Xever's a jerk," Mikey said, glaring at the offending man.**

 **With some difficulty, The turtles managed to lug Bradford up the fire escape onto the roof while Tori kept watch to make sure no one attacked while they were distracted. Xever and the three Purple Dragons only watched with mild amusement.**

 **"We're here, Xever," Leo said as the finally reached the top. "Now let the noodle man go."**

 **Xever quirked an eyebrow. "Sorry, there's been a change of plans." He made a subtle gesture with his hand and four Foot ninjas leapt to attention.**

 **Leo tried not to look too smug. "Actually, there's been another change of plans." Mikey and Donnie took this as their cue to open the garbage can and reveal a very angry Bradford.**

 **"I love it when a change of plans comes together," Donnie said. Xever didn't adopt a look of concern though, simple considering them curiously. Tori's feeling that something was going to go wrong strengthened tenfold.**

 **"You let our friend go, and we'll let your friend go," Leo demanded.**

 **Xever scoffed. "He's not my friend."**

 **Leo looked back and exchanged a panicked look with Raph.**

 **"Awkward..." Tori muttered under her breath.**

 **Xever lazily made his way over to were Murakami was hanging and started sawing through the rope with his remaining switchblade (Tori had kept the other and it was tucked away safely in the waistline of her black yoga pants.)**

 **"Uh, we're not kidding," Leo said, wincing when his voice cracked. "Okay, s-stop or we'll toss him." Raph held Bradford over the edge for emphasis.**

 **"Go ahead" Xever shrugged. "It'll save me the trouble."**

 **Bradford started to squirm and shout angrily through the duct tape.**

 **Leo looked to his brothers, uncertain in what he should do next. "Uh, Raph?"**

 **Raph steeled himself and looked down at Bradford, ready to push him over the edge-**

 **But he couldn't find it in him to do it.**

 **"Aw, crud," he sighed and threw Bradford back into the safety of the roof.**

 **Xever chuckled darkly. "That's what I thought. Attack!"**

 **The four visible Foot ninjas attacked without hesitation and without mercy. More appeared from the shadows and easily divided the turtles up amongst themselves.**

 **Tori withdrew Xever's switchblade, and though it wasn't nearly as comforting as holding the wakizashi has been, and definitely not as useful as one of Leo's katana, but she took a little comfort in the fact that she wasn't going into battle so empty handed again.**

 **With turtles taking on the Foot ninjas, Xever using Leo and Raph as target practice for his throwing knives, and Mustache guarding Murakami, Tori was left to deal with the biggest of the Purple Dragons.**

 **"Here Tubby, Tubby, Tubby," she cooed, dangerous smirk playing corners of her lips. Somewhere to her left, she heard Raph snort in laughter, and she appreciated that he was making a point to stay close to her in case she needed the help.**

 **Tubby, apparently, did not appreciate the taunting nearly as much as Raph did though, and charged Tori. She held her ground and at the last second, slipped to the side, and stuck out her foot. Tubby's momentum threw him off course and tripping over her outstretched leg. He crashed to the ground.**

 **"Ooh, that must have hurt," she said, pretending to wince in sympathy. "You okay Tubby? If the big kids play too rough, I'm sure your mommy will fix all of your boo-boos."**

 **Tubby growled under his breath ,and was getting back up on his feet, when she swiftly kicked his unsteady feet out from under him. He landed on his back with a loud thud.**

 **"You know Tubby, the bigger they are, the harder they fall," Tori warned. He didn't get up again.**

 **She looked around to see who looked like they need the most help and came face to face with Xever.**

 **"Ah, fudge nuggets," she groaned and clutched the switchblade tighter.**

 **"I see you have something that belongs to me," he said, eyeing the blade. "I do not remember giving you permission to keep it."**

 **Tori shrugged. "Finders keepers."**

 **Xever considered and nodded slowly. "So if I find your spleen on the ground after I crave you up, I get to keep it?"**

 **Tori wrinkled her nose. "Eww..."**

 **Xever smirked and rushed her. Tori forced her mind to calm down, focus, and process. After informing Splinter of her abilities, they had been working on strengthening it, and she accepted it as the only chance she had of getting out of this fight unscathed.**

 **Xever was as fast as a striking cobra, but Tori matched him move by move. He would slice, she would block. He would kick, she would jump. All she could do was stick to defense until one of the guys came and helped her out.**

 **Unfortunately, she hadn't seen that Bradford had cut himself loose. Even with her rapid processing and improving reflexes, she was unable to stop the hulking man from delivering a heavy blow to her head.**

 **She suddenly found herself on the ground, staring up at the sky and Bradford's foot about to squash her face. She squeaked in surprise and rolled out of the way just in time- right into kicking range of Xever unfortunately.**

 **Before he could strike her though, Raph came barreling in and pulled her to her feet. Together they, and the rest of the turtles, stood back to back, just then realizing how many reinforcements Xever had brought.**

 **"Let's settle the score, pond scum," Bradford growled, cracking his knuckles.**

 **Tori could hear Donnie audibly gulp beside her. "We're the ones who didn't want to throw you off the roof!" He squeaked. Bradford narrowed his eyes and with one mighty punch worthy of the mighty Thor's applause, Donnie was sent flying across the rooftop.**

 **"Donnie!" Tori shouted, running to assist him, but Bradford picked her up by the back of her shirt and dangled her there like a misbehaving kitten. He swung her to face himself, and when he was thoroughly satisfied with the look of utter horror on her face, he threw her across the roof in a similar fashion. Tori sat there, completely dazed and unable to even consider moving. Soon she heard three more thumps and slowly looked at her surroundings. Raph, Mikey, Leo, and Donnie were all slumped in a way similar to herself.**

 **"See, Bradford?" She distantly heard Xever say. "That is how you catch turtles. And next, I'll show you how to filet them." Tori slowly sat up and look at the brothers. Mikey and Donnie looked unconscious, but Raph was beginning to stir, and Leo was fighting to get to his feet.**

 **"You'd never have caught them without me and you know it!" She glanced at Bradford and Xever who were keeping each other thoroughly distracted, then looked around for a weapon.**

 **"Oh, yes. What would we have done without your brave leadership from inside the trash can?"**

 **She had dropped the knife. How could she have dropped the knife? It must have been when she almost had her face rearranged by Bradford's foot...**

 **Out of the corner of her eye, Tori saw a flicker of movement, and suddenly, Leo's katana was within reach. A quick glance up at the room's ledge showed the skinny Purple Dragon watching them emotionless and she smiled.**

 ** _'No mercy huh?_** **' she thought smugly.** ** _'A sign of weakness you say_** **?'**

 **"Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to cut these turtles into little pieces." Xever said, turning to finish them off, only to come face to face with the end of a sword.**

 **"I don't think so," Leo said. He swiftly sliced through the air, Xever stumbled back in surprise, and Leo's aim stayed true as the water tower's leg gave way and the entire structure tipped forward.**

 **Xever and Bradford barely had time to scream before they, and the rest of the Foot, were watched away by the flood of water. Mikey, who was the quickest on his feet out of the four brothers, quickly rushed forward, stuck the end of his kusarigama deep into the plaster of the roof, and leapt over the edge just as the rope holding Mr. Murakami finally snapped.**

 **Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Tori all rushed to the edge and peered down, afraid of what they would find.**

 **Mike swung from the kusarigama chain, and safe under one arm was Murakami.**

 **"I got him!" He cheered.**

 **There was a collective sigh of relief and Leo grinned down at the youngest terrapin. "Nice save, Mikey."**

 **"Don't look down, Murakami-san," Mikey said soothingly before realizing his mistake. "Or, um, listen down."**

 **Tori smiled and shook her head, glancing at the turtle beside her. Raph was wearing a similar smile as they watch Donnie and Leo help Mikey and Murakami back onto the roof.**

 **"Ah, there he is!" She said.**

 **Raph gave her a weird look. "Who?"**

 **She offered him a genuine smile and a teasing punch to the shoulder.**

 **"Mr. Nice-Turtle." Raph blinked in surprise, before smiling back.**

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 **Finally safe and sound back at the lair (after receiving the gift of pizza gyoza and finding out Mr. Murakami had known that the guys were turtles THE WHOLE TIME) Tori went back to reading Jurassic Park in her recently dubbed favorite beanbag chair ,while the guys sat in a semi-circle around the package of gyoza.**

 **Off to one side, Donnie was trying to persuade April to give the unusual food a try.**

 **"Just try one,' Donnie insisted. "Sometimes things that don't seem like they go together actually make a great couple- I mean, food!"**

 **April eyed the food suspiciously before signing in resigned defeat. "Fine." She closed her eyes opened her mouth and took a bite. She opened her eyes again and chewed thoughtfully before her eyes widened.**

 **"Whoa! These are amazing!" Donnie practically glowed with his success until April proceeded to eat the rest of his pizza gyoza.**

 **"You boys showed your strength today," Splinter said safely, taking a sip of tea.**

 **"Yeah, but we almost got beaten," Raph sighed.**

 **"Your strength was mercy," Splinter reminded him. "That is why the Purple Dragon helped you."**

 **Raph fell silent until he felt Leo's face only inches from his own.**

 **"What?" He snapped, leaning away from the close proximity.**

 **"Well?" Leo goaded. "Say it."**

 **Raph rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay. You were right."**

 **Leo smirked in satisfaction. "Ahh, see? That wasn't so-"**

 **"Your wimpiness might not be totally useless."**

 **Leo blinked in surprise, and when that mischievous smile played on Raph's lips, Leo smirked back just as mischievously. "Oh-ho. I'll show you who's wimpy," the blue banded turtle said, before punching on his immediate younger brother. "No mercy!"**

 **After Raph's initial surprise, they began to roll around the living room, giggling like little kids as they both tried to get the upper hand. Splinter watched them in amusement for a moment before regrettably calling their rough-housing to an end.**

 **"I believe you may both owe an apology to someone else as well," he said. "Someone who has struggled to be heard as your voice of reason these past few nights, and was drowned out by the sound of your own plots of vengeance." They all glanced to where Tori was struggling to keep her eyes open and read her book. It was obvious she hadn't slept at all the night before, and her cat nap could hardly bring her sustainable energy.**

 **Raph sighed and got to his feet. "I'll go talk to her..."**

 **Raph walked across the living area to take a seat next to Tori. She glanced at him suspiciously out of the corner of her eye, but said nothing.**

 **"Ahh... hey..." Raph said, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck.**

 **"Hey."**

 **Raph squirmed uncomfortably. Apologies had never been his strong suit- everyone knew that. And no matter how many times he found himself in a position where an apology was required, it never got any easier.**

 **"So, I uh... I think I might owe you an apology," he said. She didn't say anything. She hadn't said anything since welcoming the sight of "Mr. Nice-Turtle."**

 **"You were right," he said, pushing onward. "About the mercy thing. When I was about to push Bradford over the edge, I realized I didn't want to be like him. I didn't want to be a killer. I know what you meant now." He glanced at her again, and this time she was smiling. Relief washed through him in a tidal wave. Goodbye cold shoulder.**

 **"Well good," Tori said, almond eyes twinkling. "I was starting to wonder if maybe Donnie and I would have to drill a hole in your head just to make sure** ** _some_** **wisdom and knowledge could penetrate that thick skull of yours!"**

 **Raph laughed for real then; a big booming laugh that made Tori get that happy feeling she got every time she made someone happy- just tenfold as it was Raph laughing.**

 **"Now that's just mean!" He laughed.**

 **Tori bumped his shoulder with her own. "I guess I'll just have to show mercy then."**

 ** _Behold, a new chapter. I'm too tired to really write an author's note right now, so I'll just say thank you everyone! Good night!_**


	17. Trust Exercises

**"It has not escaped my notice that you all have been struggling as a team as of late," Splinter said as training began that next morning. Everyone winced, and uncomfortable glances were exchanged. "To be part of a team is to be part of a well oiled machine. Each part of the machine has its own important role to play, but the moment that one or more of the pieces are neglected, the entire machine begins to fail."**

 **Now Tori knew this comment was directly pointed towards herself. After receiving apologies from the guys the night before, she had forgiven them and hoped to put it all behind them. No dwelling on things done and over with, especially if the guys had learned their lesson. Apparently, in Splinter's mind, the lesson needed to be solidified.**

 **"Leonardo," Splinter began, and the oldest turtle straightened to attention. "As the leader it is your duty to keep full confidence in yourself. Should your team see that you do not truly believe in yourself, how are they expected to believe in you? While it is good to hear what your team has to say, and to take all options into consideration, you must not be swayed to make a decision simply because it is the popular vote; it must be the correct and honorable choice."**

 **Leo bowed his head in respectful understanding, and Splinter moved on to his next son.**

 **"Raphael, you confuse anger with strength, and mercy with weakness. When the voices of reason presented themselves to you, you refused to accept the truth, and instead pushed forward bullishly with your own mistaken ideas until it was almost too late. You must come to realize that not all conflict must be resolved with conflict, and that conflict can indeed be the cause of many unnecessary wars."**

 **Raph shifted uncomfortably, used to defending himself at least a little, but he stayed silent, simply nodding in acknowledgement. Master Splinter must have found this sufficient because he moved on to the tallest of his sons.**

 **"Donatello, you saw the possible conflict arising before any of your brothers, and yet you stayed silent. You feared that your thoughts would not be respected or taken into account, and so you gave up before you had even tried. Because of this, the conflict that you had predicted did indeed arise when it could have been avoided. You have a bright and promising mind; do not be afraid to speak it when the time is right."**

 **Donnie took the words to heart. "Hai sensei," he murmured.**

 **Next was the youngest of the brothers. "Michelangelo," The orange banded turtle looked up with an innocent grin. "You were almost oblivious to the conflict until it was right on top of you. You were distracted, naïve, and completely at peace with letting your brothers think for you. While your blind faith is... admirable, you must not assume your elder brothers are always right. They too make mistakes, and you must have your wits about you, if you are to make that distinction."**

 **Mikey bowed his head, unusually somber and excepting- a sign that the words had indeed actually sunk in. "Hai, sensei," he murmured.**

 **"Victoria." Tori winced; she had a pretty fair idea what was going to happen next, and mentally prepared herself for reprimanding. "I understand that each of my son's have apologized?"**

 **"Yes sir," she squeaked, then cleared her throat. "They all apologized and promised it would not happen again. I believe they learned their lesson."**

 **Splinter nodded. "Good. Then I believe it is my turn to apologize." Tori's eyes widened, and she glanced at Raph to see if she heard him right. If his equally astounded expression was anything to go by, then she had.**

 **"What?" She spluttered. "You don't need to apologize; you weren't even there!"**

 **Splinter held up a hand to calmly silence her. "I may not have been there for the battles, but even I saw the approaching storm, and did little in my attempt to steer you away from it. I had assumed the lesson would be best learned if my son's had mistakes to learn from, or perhaps that they would respond to reason. When they did not, I warned them, and did nothing. In that way, I'm afraid I put you in danger that I had not foreseen, and for that I must ask your forgiveness."**

 **The students sat in stunned silence, and it took a moment for Tori to realize Splinter was waiting for a response, and another to realize what it was.**

 **"Of course!" She gushed. "I wasn't mad at you anyway! You did your part as teacher; there's nothing to forgive!"**

 **Splinter seemed to take this as sufficient and stood back in the center of the dojo.**

 **"Now then, for training today, I believe we need team building trust exercises. Now that we are all on the same page, we must build upon that until you are a completely functioning team."**

 **Tori felt a little weary and knew that it wasn't going to be one of the trust exercises from summer camp.**

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 **Tori never would have guessed that "trust exercises" meant putting on a blindfold and trusting your partner to guide your hand right on top of a mouse trap without springing the trap or getting your fingers snapped. Or wandering around in the sewers and trusting your partner to not let you drown in the filthy, murky, smelly water.** ** _Or_** **putting yourself in mortal danger and trusting your partner to save you.**

 **"I'm not sure I'm ready for this step!" Tori shouted to her partner- Leo. "Can we go back to the mouse trap thing?"**

 **"Master Splinter said that was a test of blind trust and you passed," Leo shouted from the rooftop across from her. "This is to test how much you trust my leadership."**

 **"I trust your leadership plenty; but I also know for a fact you would never ask me to jump to my death during a mission... right?"**

 **"You're not jumping to your death, just jumping off a roof top and allowing me to rescue you via my grappling hook."**

 **"You didn't answer my question."**

 **"It will be just like Batman saving Robin from a terrible fall."**

 **"Batman is a fictional character saving his sidekick, who also happens to have his own grappling hook. This is real life, and I don't have a grappling hook."**

 **"Get ready to jump on three!"**

 **"I still don't understand the correlation between your leadership and me being forced to attempt suicide!"**

 **"One..."**

 **"I cheated during the mousetrap test and peaked under the blindfold! I didn't trust Mikey. We need to go back and do that one right, before we can move onto this!"**

 **"Two..."**

 **"It is considered second degree manslaughter if someone convinces someone else to commit suicide, and results** **in five years** **jail time!"**

 **"Three!"**

 **Tori felt Raph push her from behind without warning and she was suddenly hurdling through space, screaming at the top of her lungs. She flipped over midair and saw Leo diving towards her, one hand reaching out to grab her, the other holding on to the grappling hook. He was too far away though, and from the suddenly panicked look in his eyes, he knew it too.**

 **She felt her life drawing to a close, the number of stories left before hitting the ground shortening.**

 **The rope on Leo's grappling hook pulled taught and he stopped falling, but Tori did not. She fell the last twenty feet before-**

 ** _BOING_** **!**

 **Tori felt herself hit the layered mattresses Donnie had placed on the ground, bounced up several feet, and fall back to the mattress, completely unscathed. Up above, she saw Raph leaning over the roof ledge to see what had happened, and Leo swinging by his rope, before letting go and landing softly beside her.**

 **"Are you alright?" he asked guiltily.**

 **Tori didn't move, only giving him a bland stare.**

 **"I'm dead."**

 **Neither of them missed the sound of Raphael bursting into hysterical laughter.**

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 **The silence was deafening as they stared at each other, both equally uncomfortable with the situation.**

 **"Soo..." Donnie said, trying in vain to lighten the mood. "Nice weather we're having** **tonight** **."**

 **"Yup," Tori agreed stiffly. "There isn't any weather I would rather be tied up and hung upside down in uncomfortably close quarters with my guy friend during."**

 **Donnie laughed nervously, and the barely lit conversation died.**

 **"How long do you think it will take for them to notice we're missing?" Tori asked.**

 **"They should notice about hour or two after they finish with their trust exercises, but considering we aren't in the district Leo assigned us to, it could take much longer for them to find us. Especially since neither of us brought our shell cells."**

 **Tori hummed in agreement, and strained her neck to look around at the narrow alley they were in, quickly becoming bored.**

 **"Truth or dare?"**

 **Donnie stared at her as if she had lost her mind. "What?"**

 **"Truth or Dare." Tori repeated. "It's a game where-"**

 **"I know how to play," Donnie interrupted. "What I don't understand is how you expect me to pick anything other than truth with both of us tied up like this."**

 **"I can be creative," Tori insisted. "It's called thinking outside the box."**

 **They fell into momentary silence again before Donnie finally responded.**

 **"Truth."**

 **Tori grinned. "How did you guys meet April?"**

 **"We were on our first patrol when we saw a group of Kraang kidnapping her and her dad. We managed to save April in the end, but we're still looking for her dad's location. Truth or dare?"**

 **"Truth."**

 **Donnie considered her for a moment. "What were you doing here in New York if you lived in Montana?"**

 **"Sightseeing with my family," Tori responded a little shortly. "Truth or dare?"**

 **"Truth."**

 **"What was your first ever invention?"**

 **"A turtle-tot heat lamp."**

 **Tori started to giggle. "That's adorable!"**

 **"It got cold in the sewers!" Donnie said defensively. "Since Leo, Raph, Mikey and I are cold blooded, and we didn't have heating yet, we had a hard time staying awake in the winter. So I built a heat lamp."**

 **"Still adorable, but moving on. Dare!"**

 **"But I haven't even asked you yet!"**

 **"Dare!"**

 **Donnie sighed and looked around at his surroundings. "I dare you to try and spit into that rubber tire."**

 **Tori looked around and laughed. "Easy! It's literally right under us!"**

 **"I know," Donnie said. "I didn't want to run the risk of you accidentally spitting in my face."**

 **Tori wiggled around, arched her back (and subsequently Donnie's plastron) and spit, right dead center in the middle of the tire.**

 **"Haha! Score! Truth or Dare?"**

 **"Truth."**

 **"Are you losing feeling in your legs?" Tori asked, squirming a bit. "Because I am definitely losing feeling in mine. And I have to pee."**

 **"Yes, yes I am. And that was unnecessary information to make me nervous. Truth or dare?"**

 **"Truth; your dares are boring."**

 **"Why are your blankets in Raph's room?"**

 **Tori felt whatever blood that hadn't already flowed to her head join the rest, and she was glad Donnie couldn't see her blush.**

 **"I, uh, get night terrors when I sleep alone. Raph let's me camp out on his hammock."**

 **Donnie felt a pang of guilt. It explained why she had been so tired the other day. She had probably refused to sleep near Raph after their argument, and had either had nightmares or had stayed awake just to avoid them.**

 **"I'm sorry. If you ever need to get away from the hot head, there's always the cot in the lab if you want it. I usually end up sleeping in there anyway."**

 **Tori was quiet for a moment. "Thanks Don. Truth or Dare?"**

 **"Truth."**

 **Tori rolled her eyes. "Oh come on Donnie!"**

 **Donnie shook his head stubbornly. "Nope, I have played this game with Raph and Mikey way to many times to do dare ever again."**

 **"Fine..." Tori looked around as if looking for inspiration, then spotted someone at the entrance of the ally and froze.**

 **For the first time since being mutated, Tori was able to take full advantage of her night vision.**

 **It was a girl, a little shorter than Tori herself, with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. It was when Tori took in the outfit and zeroed in on the girl's face that she recognized her.**

 **"April!" She called, thanking her lucky stars that the one person to walk this direction was the one person they both knew and trusted.**

 **"Tori?" April called uncertainty, squinting into the darkness. "Is that you?"**

 **"Yeah! And Donnie too. We're stuck, and tangled up in Donnie's grappling hook rope. Could you help us out?"**

 **"Without calling the other guys?" Donnie added. "We'd never hear the end of it if they saw us like this."**

 **April slowly moved further into the ally, being careful not to trip over anything, and pulled her smartphone out if her pocket to shine the flashlight on them. Tori winced as the light assaulted her night vision, but didn't complain.**

 **"How in the world did you manage to do that?"**

 **Tori rolled her eyes. "It has been a rather long day of failed trust exercises, and to be honest, I would like to go to bed now- preferably after I get feeling back in my legs and go to the bathroom."**

 _ **Okay, so here's that new chapter I promised to post yesterday. Sorry it's a bit late; I was in town all day and didn't get home until a little after midnight.**_

 _ **Zorua1- Hahaha X'D That's basically what happened! XD XD XD**_

 _ **BookRain- I KNOW RIGHT!? I was in a similar situation with a rather large bruise on my face (obviously not caused by a robotic turtle) and that's what prompted the basis of that chapter. ;D And yes, I do believe that chapter 16 was the longest one yet, but I think "The Gauntlet" episode is proving that it will be even longer... o.O Thanks for your continuously supportive reviews!**_

 _ **bajy- As always, I am thrilled to see your reviews on each of the chapters! ^-^ Yes, I do believe the Rori (or should it be Taph?) ship is just about ready to sail !^.^ I'm glad you're loving it so much!**_

 _ **Alright guys, I MIGHT have the next update up tomorrow, but as I already said, this next chapter is proving to be the longest, and one of the most difficult, chapters I've written yet. The TV episode kind of bounces all over the place, which means I have a lot of in-between scenes that I like inserting to give it a better flow as a story, and so much happens, and Tori discovers something that finally brings an over-arching plot into action, AND IT'S GOING TO BE SO EXCITING! XD XD I really can't wait to share it with you guys! So I PROMISE the wait will be worth it if I don't have it posted tomorrow or the day after. Until then, sit tight, maybe check out one of my other stories (unfortunately none of the others are TMNT, but I'm pretty proud of them) or some other TMNT stories, and I'll be working as quickly and efficiently as I can. Bye!**_


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